News Releases

A woman is lucky to be alive after driving around a barricade and finding herself in a dangerous situation in flood waters Thursday night. 

It happened at 6:42 pm on Old Hixson Pike.

The driver went around a barricade into the flooded roadway where the water was several feet deep and very swift.

The woman got out of her vehicle when it stalled, thinking she could walk through the fast moving water, but she was swept into the tree line.

She managed to grab onto a tree and called 911.

Fire personnel rushed to the scene and launched a rescue mission. They threw her a rope and started to pull her out.

She lost her grip on the rope so firefighters made their way to her, helped her get a life jacket on and then got her out of the water.

She was checked out by paramedics on the scene and thankfully, she not injured, just cold.

Mutual aid was provided by Dallas Bay VFD.

Removal of her car will be handled by a wrecker service. 

Battalion Chief Chris Warren played an integral role in the rescue and stressed to drivers the importance of paying attention when barricades are out.

“Great work by our crews to save a life tonight. We ask the public to take the necessary precautions in these situations. Don’t underestimate what could happen,” he urged.

The Chattanooga Fire Department’s Special Operations Division responded to a concerning situation on Signal Mountain Road on Thursday.

We received a call from EPB this morning as their crews were out working to restore power to residents in a mobile home park.

They found an unstable embankment behind several of the trailers and notified CFD. There has been a small mudslide.

CFD’s Special Operations Chief contacted the necessary officials in the city’s Land Development Office and they responded to the scene to take a look at the ridge and possible problematic areas.

This mobile home park, Edmonds Rentals, is across the street from the Subway collapse last February due to a mudslide.

Officials are worried about the possibility of trees falling onto the trailers. Safety is a top priority so trees were removed from the areas of concern.

This situation is directly related to the heavy rains the Chattanooga area has been experiencing.
The Land Development Office has instructed the property owner on what actions need to be taken for several impacted residents to be able to stay in their homes.

The management at the site has gone above and beyond to address the issue, taking out extra trees from the ridge in an effort to keep residents safe.

Wednesday night at 2209, E5,E9,L5,Q1 and S1 were dispatched to the 1900 block of Dodds Avenue on a reported residential fire.

Upon arrival, E9 advised that there was a fire on the front porch of the residence.

A quick attack was made by E9 and E5's crews and the fire was contained just to the front porch area.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. 

CFD was hard at work on Interstate 24 Wednesday when a car carrier truck caught fire.

It happened around 1:40 PM Wednesday in the eastbound lanes, between the Wildwood and Cummings Highway exits.

The driver says he was headed down the road hauling the vehicles when he noticed another driver signaling to him and trying to alert him that something was wrong. That’s when he saw smoke and pulled over, unable to make it to the next exit.

Flames were coming from the back of the trailer. He tried to put the fire out with his extinguisher, but it had spread to several other cars, both on the top and bottom of the carrier.

Quint 3, Tanker 3, Quint 1 and Quint 14 responded to the scene and got the fire out.

Traffic was backed up as crews worked on the side of the road. For a time, the eastbound lanes were totally shut down.

The driver and his dog were not injured. The cause of the fire is undetermined at this time.