NORFOLK — The Coast Guard and Virginia Port Authority trained more than 100 police and fire personnel in a five day long search and rescue exercise Friday.
Police officers and firefighters from 22 different police and fire departments gathered for the training.
Organizers of the fifth annual exercise say getting out on the water, honing skills and interacting with other first responders is vital.
“We need to bring all these folks together so when there’s a regional response that requires multiple assets to search for multiple victims or people in the water, we’re all reading from the same sheet of paper,” said Bill Burket of the Virginia Port Authority.
The three-man team aboard the “Marine 2,” the City of Hampton’s 30-foot classic fire boat, was among the crews out on the high seas.
They were assigned to patrol a 7.2 square mile sector of water off of Craney Island.
In the fictitious training scenario, the team searched for debris associated with a tour boat that sank with five people aboard. What they found was a crab pot buoy.
“Sometimes we may find things not related to the incident we’re assigned to. However, each target needs to be checked into to ensure it’s not part of the rescue,” said Capt. Fred Murden of Hampton Fire and Rescue.
The Coast Guard was involved in 23,530 search and rescue cases, according to statistics for fiscal year 2009.
4,861 lives were saved and 816 were lost.
“This effort is crucial. We only do this once a year and this fosters inter-agency cooperation. It gets us on the same page,” said Lt. Jack Smith.
