“You just don’t realize how the heat and the humidity can affect you especially when you go to the base of Fall Creek Falls. That trail is like four-tenths of a mile that climbs 300 feet, that’s pretty exertional,” said Tiwanna Bricker with the Piney Volunteer Fire Department.
According to the Piney Fire Facebook page, state park rangers found the hiker in the water at the base of the falls suffering from a hip injury.
Bricker was at church at the time and immediately left to help.
“I don’t know if they understand how much dedication it takes from a regular member to just drop everything in their work [ and ] family life…the whole thing to go take care of somebody else’s emergency,” Bricker said. “I had waters in the cooler from a birthday party the previous night that all went down to help take care of the people.”
With the help of several other agencies, the crew worked for four hours to move the injured hiker. Bricker said despite conducting rescues like this eight to ten times a year, a 50-person operation like they had last Sunday is rare.
“This call particularly was difficult because of the patient’s size. He was over 300 pounds. That required more work, rope work, and then just more people to carry. And then also the heat…so our people were just getting exhausted and dehydrated from trying to carry him out,” Bricker said.
It took crews approximately four hours to remove the injured hiker and first responders had to take frequent breaks and prioritize hydration to complete the rescue.
“There’s no easy carry out. There’s no easy way around. There are no roads into that area,” Bricker said.
Dunlap Fire Department, Pikeville Department, Doyle Volunteer Fire Department, White County Office of Emergency Management, Sparta Rescue Squad, Bledsoe County Rescue Squad, Bledsoe County EMA, White County Rescue Squad, Sequatchie County Rescue Squad, and the Mt. Crest Volunteer Fire Department all assisted in the hours-long rescue.
Bricker said many of these teams had trained together to tackle calls like these.
“We’ve been working to foster a close relationship and learn to work on rope training together. And so that works great to have them and then we’ve all worked together and training scenarios,” she said.
Bricker said despite the demands on her and the rest of the team, she is honored to serve her community.
“There’s days when you’re like okay, I’m done. I’m just gonna quit. And then you get up the next morning and just go back and do it some more…we just have a great love for our local fire department, our local people and so we just keep working to get better and to take care of them and then that just extends to the citizens that visit the site park that’s in our area,” Bricker said.
As the temperatures continue to rise, Bricker is urging people to stay safe on the trail and also reminding visitors it’s illegal to jump from one of the ledges into the plunge pool below.
However, if anyone is in danger or injured, she is ready to go help.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments. It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. We strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation. Join us in shaping the news narrative together.
Most Popular
Comments / 0