ERFD Lends Hand to Distressed Kayaker

Photo courtesy of East Ridge Fire Department

The East Ridge Fire Department helped safely return a kayaker in distress on South Chickamauga Creek to safety early Friday evening.

Officials said that ERFD was dispatched to Camp Jordan Park on the call at 7:09 p.m. Fire Chief Mike Williams said the fire crew notified their counterparts in Chattanooga to check out the creek near Walmart for the waterman needing help. A command post was established at Camp Jordan and communications between the two departments quickly located the kayaker.

Chief Williams said that ERFD deployed its kayaks and the distressed paddler was located about a mile downstream on South Chickamauga Creek. The kayaker was brought to shore and was taken to a waiting Memorial EMS ambulance for evaluation. Officials said the kayaker is fine and needed no further medical attention.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.