Central Texas Firefighters Honing Swift Water Rescues

Local heroes getting some good practice in.

I was watching "Navy Seals" reruns the other night, and one of the characters was telling someone to...

"Sleep when you can".

That philosophy must carry over to practice as well.

KWTX is reporting that local firefighters from Temple, Killeen, Fort Hood, and Waco are taking advantage of all the water we have in Central Texas by practicing swift water rescues on the Leon River.

Killeen Fire Battalion Chief Phillip Bannister said...

"The rivers are at max capacity, the lakes are at max capacity, there's nowhere for water to go."

It seems the Killeen Fire Department has been building a water rescue team for the past twelve years. They even went to Tennessee and Oklahoma to test currents. One thing for sure is that when the real situation arises, everyone will need help from other departments. Bannister added...

"When we start searching this river all the way down and start branching out, we need secondary safeties, we need upstream spotters, downstream spotters, and that's just not something one department can cover."

The Temple Fire Department is expecting to get its first boat for its water rescue team by the end of June.