La Follette, Knox Rescue Squads spend morning searching for victims

TOP PHOTO: This is a file photo from January.

STONY FORK, TN (WLAF) – Individuals said to be from Oliver Springs were spotted stranded before 4am Friday in sub-zero temperatures and wind chills below zero along New River not far from the Beech Fork Bridge.

“A local saw them across the river where there’s no cellphone service, and he drove a couple of miles back to his home to make a phone call for help,” said La Follette Rescue Squad Chief Charles Hutson. In fact, the caller and Hutson spoke several times through the morning.

“Because of the cold temperature and the fact they were across New River, I called the Knox County Rescue Squad to bring out its swift water team, because they have dry suits to handle the extreme temperature. The squads left out at about 7am.

The Knox County Squad met up with the La Follette Rescue Squad at the Huntsville-Oneida Exit, 141, to go in that way as opposed to going over Caryville Mountain. “We took Norma Road through Scott County to Stony Fork and on to the bridge though it probably was not any better than had we gone over the mountain,” said the Chief.

Both squads made it to the scene by 9am after traveling over a road that was ice covered. One unit went off the road into a ditch and had to be winched out.

“We never found the victims. However, we did see where a couple of vehicles had turned around where they were said to have been. The caller told us that there were three people stranded, and that they had a Jeep Liberty,” said Hutson.

Hutson explains that someone else must have helped them get out of there, and that no one called to say that they had been rescued.

“We wound up getting back in service by noon, and the venture established a really good working relationship with Knoxville,” said Chief Hutson. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 12/23/2022-6AM)