Bay Area first responders and K9s deployed to Texas to assist with disaster recovery
Local Bay Area first responders have been deployed to Texas to assist with disaster recovery after the devastating floods over the Fourth of July weekend.
"We have a mission-ready package, which is a smaller makeup of the team. We have two dogs that are trained to detect human remains. They're both labradors," Brandon Bond, a K9 search specialist with the California Urban Search & Rescue Team Task Force 3, told CBS News Bay Area.
Bond works with his Labrador Retriever, Kylo, every day. His K9 is a FEMA-certified type-one disaster dog, trained to detect live human scent.
"As you can see, these rubble piles, they're very dangerous, things move. And the dogs have to have very, very high strength and agility and drive to continue to do this work," he said.
Bond is the emergency manager for the City of Menlo Park. He and Kylo are a part of a rigorous team of first responders making up this FEMA task force.
"One of the first things they needed to do was acclimate the dogs to the weather, in some 95-degree humidity. They're working on very difficult terrain along the riverbank where you have the debris flow, mud, etc.," he said.
While Kylo is trained to detect live human scent, the two K9s on the grounds in Texas detect human remains.
"The rest of the team members are there for search team management and to support the K9 teams while they're searching," he said.
Deputy Fire Chief Dan Coyle of the Menlo Park Fire Protection District said his agency is the sponsor of one of eight FEMA teams in California. The task force has about 200 members of local first responders and volunteer civilians from the San Francisco Bay Area.
"The sooner we get this search and rescue portion done, then the rebuilding and the real recovery can start taking place," Coyle told CBS News Bay Area.
"Our primary mission is obviously search and life saving. But eventually, many of these incidents that we end up going to have passed the rescue stage and they're in their recovery stage. We understand that that work is difficult, and it's important, though, to try to get whatever sense of closure if that is possible to the families that may have lost people," he added.
And K9s like Kylo are there to help during natural disasters.
"Every day is a training day, these dogs need to work. They need to have brainwork," Bond said. "If you take a look at these rubble sites, it would take a human team hours to be able to systematically remove the layer of debris and search for victims. You could see how fast the dogs work and lock in on the scent source that we're going for. We've actually done timed tests on the large rubble pile, and in less than two minutes the dog can clear the entire pile."
The deputy fire chief said that his team deployed to Texas last Friday, and they are typically assisting for about two weeks, up to 21 days. They plan to continue helping search crews in Texas with everything they need.
