LA County Fire Search Dogs Have Traveled to Turkey to Help Save Lives
On Wednesday, February 8, members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department and their canine counterparts traveled 20 hours to Turkey. According to the official Los Angeles County Fire Search Dogs Instagram account, the dogs will be working in Turkey to help “those affected by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake,” which occurred on February 6.
CNN reported that the natural disaster, which also affected Syria, has resulted in the death of 15,000 people. The publication noted that “tens of thousands” of people have also been injured. Issues have been exacerbated as the area has been experiencing “freezing weather conditions.”
The Los Angeles County Fire Department Interim Chief Anthony Marrone referred to the firefighters and the search and rescue dogs as “true heroes” in a February 8 news conference.
"These men and women and these dogs of the L.A. County Fire Department are really going to go place themselves in harm's way to save lives, to dig people out and to help with the recovery,” stated Marrone.
The Interim Chief shared that the LA County Fire Search Dogs have been “trained to find live people under rubble,” which helps rescuers “pinpoint [their] rescue efforts to make sure that [they are] able to pull those people out.”
“Sometimes two, three, four, five days later, we're going to be pulling people that are alive out of the rubble,” explained Marrone.
For those unaware, search and rescue dogs assist in finding missing individuals who have become lost due to natural disasters, mental health issues, or getting confused while out in the wilderness.
The SAR dogs can locate those who are lost by using their noses. The VCA reported that canine companions have “more than 100 million sensory receptor sites in the nasal cavity,” while us humans only have a measly 6 million.
It is also important to note that SAR dogs have been training for their positions since they were puppies. They usually will begin officially working when they are about 1.
Here at Woof Republic, we want to give a round of applause to the Los Angeles County Fire Department and the Los Angeles Search Dogs for all their wonderful work!