TAMPA, Fla. — Rescue dogs are part of the mission to find whoever is still under the collapsed Surfside condo building's rubble.
Dogs are able to search in places humans can't. Lt. Brian Smithey from Tampa Fire Rescue and his 5-year-old search dog Patron have been deployed all over the country to help look for people during disasters including the earthquake in Puerto Rico and Hurricane Michael in North Florida. They were training this morning to respond to disasters like the building collapse.
Smithey shared this insight about how they work together to find those who are missing:
“The dog’s trained to get to the area with the highest concentration of scent. They’re going to put their head there and keep barking and barking and barking to tell us, hey guys, this is this is where they’re at. And to them it’s just a big game of hide and go seek,” Smithey said.
Dogs like Patron hope that they’re going to get a toy or a treat like in training so they keep looking for that reward. Instead this time, it’s a person.
“The dog is going to pinpoint it, pinpoint that area for us and they’re we’re going to bring the rest of our people in,” Smithey said.
The lieutenant says each rescue is unique, so there's really no road map. They rely on engineers to tell them how to proceed each time. He says the rescue effort in Surfside could last days because they're going to have to keep pulling off pieces of debris to search the areas below.
- New video shows Miami high-rise building partially collapse; 1 dead, 35 rescued
- First Lady Jill Biden will attend Lightning vaccination event Thursday in Tampa
- Police: Officer shot in the head in Daytona Beach
- Oath Keeper pleads guilty in Jan. 6 attack; will cooperate
- Catch the Strawberry moon tonight, the last Supermoon of 2021
- A Frank Conversation: New podcast explores race, religion, politics and more
►Breaking news and weather alerts: Get the free 10 Tampa Bay app
►Stay In the Know! Sign up now for the Brightside Blend Newsletter