Buzzard’s Bay Rescue Drill

Roughly nine agencies took part in a water rescue drill Wednesday in Buzzard's Bay.

The exercise, involving the Buzzard's Bay Task Force, had crews involved in the search for a rescue dummy that had been place in the water hours earlier by the U.S. Coast Guard.

New Bedford Fire Chief Michael Gomes says the exercise will help to demonstrate the effectiveness of the task force in responding to a real emergency.

"We're basically just continuing to exercise the system to ensure and to validate that what we think we can do, we can actually do," says Gomes "going forward we'll be included in the Coast Guard search plans because we've validated the face that we can do the search patterns that they're requesting of us."

Wednesday's excercise involved communities on the West End of Buzzard's Bay.

A similar exercise will take place on Friday involving communities on the East End of Buzzard's Bay.