Tennessee Valley crews on ground helping in Unicoi County

From Local 3 News: Some crews from our area are in Unicoi County, Tennessee to help with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Chattanooga, Dunlap, and Signal Mountain Fire Departments, along with Sequatchie Fire and Rescue, are all several days into helping with the recovery efforts.

Signal Mountain Fire Chief Larry Slogan has three of his men helping with search and rescue operations.

“The last time I checked, they were working on the I-26 area that goes through Erwin and Unicoi, searching for missing individuals. The last I heard, they were dealing with a hazardous material issue, but they are mainly looking for people who are missing,” Slogan said.

Slogan said crews are just going through the rubble that is piled up to find anyone who may be trapped.

“They have our side-by-side UTV with them as most of the departments over there do. I think they are using those to get around primarily and probably do a lot of walking too. I think for the area that they are in the transportation structure is in pretty good shape where there is not debris across the road, and they have assets over there that are working to clear the roads as they move along with their search,” Slogan said.

To ensure his men's safety, Slogan gets regular text message updates from the lieutenant leading their crew.

“I'm not bothering them with phone calls because they are busy from about seven o'clock in the morning to about seven o'clock at night. That is their operation period. He'll send me updates from time to time of just what's going on, and making sure everybody is doing well and keeping us abreast of what is going on,” Slogan said.

Slogan expressed that is always good to help when you can as you never know when you may need it.

“If we were to have some type of event like this on top of the mountain, whether it be a tornado or a wildfire, heaven forbid something like that, we would assets from other parts of the state that would come in to help us deal with that. It's our turn to participate and help our brothers, other fire departments, and our neighbors in the state and other states too, if called to do that,” Slogan said.