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Hendersonville firefighters enhance boater safety at Old Hickory Lake

Marine one
Hendersonville Fire Department's Marine One patrols the waters of Old Hickory Lake, helping fight fires, performing rescue operations, and educating both locals and visitors about boater safety.

By KATE COIL

TT&C Assistant Editor

Members of the Hendersonville Fire Department conduct maintenace on Marine One in preparation for the upcoming summer. The engines on the boat are being replaced and the vessel rewired to ensure it is fully operational. 

As summer fun returns to Old Hickory Lake so will the Hendersonville Fire Department whose vessel Marine One and certified dive team work to ensure residents and visitors stay safe. 

Hendersonville Fire Chief Scotty Bush said the fire boat and dive team were created following a tragedy on Old Hickory Lake 20 years ago. A Hendersonville High School student who had recently graduated, Emily Harding, 18, was celebrating out on the lake with friends when she was ejected from the boat.   

“She was thrown off the boat and was run over,” Bush said. “We didn’t find her body until 11 days after the fact. It was very traumatic for her high school friends who saw her like that. We exhausted a lot of manpower and energy searching for her body. We sat on the shoreline with her family for those 11 days until we found her. Afterwards, we got together and said ‘we need to do better.’ We needed to give family’s closure, especially after seeing this family go through this for 11 days. We get a lot of activity on Old Hickory Lake, and there is no sense in us not being prepared for any emergency.” 

The department purchased the boat with grant funds as well as began organizing its dive team as a result. Since then, Hendersonville’s Marine One has rendered aid numerous times.  

“We have had two marina fires since we’ve gotten it,” Bush said. “It has firefighting capabilities with it, which means it has a pump. It has saved astronomical amounts of money with its use against marina fires. It also helps get the message out that we are not a one-service only department. We want to offer better services to our community and the people who come here to enjoy the city by the lake.” 

Marine One Fire
Marine One extinguishes a boat fire on Old Hickory Lake. In addition to providing services for boat fires, the vessel has also proved essential in fighting multiple marina fires in the area. 

Fire may seem like the least of concerns when boating out on the lake, so Bush said the department works to educate boaters on the risks and plan accordingly.  

“We get boat fires, jet ski injuries, people who collide when waterskiing and they sustain neck injuries,” he said. “Hendersonville has 26.2 miles of shoreline that we protect. A boat is a huge asset. We usually only go out when someone is in distress but on the big holidays, like Memorial Day and Fourth of July, we stay on the water. We let people know we are out, do some water safety and educate people on PFDs [portable flotation devices]. You need a PFD for everyone out on the water with you. We also remind people they need a fire extinguisher on their boat.” 

At present, the motors on Marine One are being replaced and the boat is being rewired. Once this and some general cleanup tasks are finished, Bush said Marine One will be back on the water. 

“We are looking at updating our electronics if we have money left over,” he said. “We have our SONAR, which is important in locating anyone who has drowned, locating objects or people. We have helped the police department in cases where they have had evidence thrown in the lake with our dive team.” 

In incidents where there has been a drowning, Bush said the dive team works with marine robots like those used by TWRA for recovery efforts.  

Dive team
Hendersonville Firefighters train as part of the department's dive team in a local pool. The team trains on recovering evidence, locating the bodies of drowning victims, and rescuing those in danger.

“The dive team has been super instrumental in recovery and closure for families,” Bush said. “I cannot tell you how many times families have thanked us for a speedy recovery. We sent the robot down and then the divers down, which is much safer than diving in a grid. Just to see the satisfaction on families' faces is worth a million dollars every time.” 

There are presently 13 members of the department’s dive team, though Bush said the department hopes to get up to a full team of 18 members. On top of their regular firefighter training, divers go through numerous specialized trainings to make and stay on the team, including:  

  • Basic recreational diving, like buddy breathing, buoyancy, motion control, navigation, and packing and unpacking gear
  • Open water certification
  • Deep diving
  • Dry suits
  • Search and recovery
  • Boat diving
  • Basic rescue diver certifications
  • Public safety diver black water training
  • Underwater sonar assisted searches
  • Evidence recovery and chain of custody
  • Self-preservation techniques 

The team also trains with other local area rescue services, such as Metro Nashville’s recovery robot and the Wilson County Emergency Management Agency, who also patrols part of Old Hickory Lake. Bush said the department is willing to connect with other departments or cities that either would like mutual aid or to learn more about how they can create similar programs.  

“We are an agency that is willing to go an extra mile to provide a level of services to people in our community, whether they live here or just visiting,” Bush said. To any department that is thinking about doing anything like this, please reach out. If you need our services, we certainly would be willing to come to your organization to help out. We would love to guide you on the do’s and the don’ts, what to do to get started, and what can be done to curb some of those costs. We would be honored to take folks out on the boat, see all the usage of it, and understand more about what we do.” 

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