Firefighter, canine certified in disaster response
Santa Maria Times Staff Report | Posted: Saturday, May 29, 2010 12:00 amA Santa Barbara County firefighter and his canine partner have completed rigorous tests to become one of only 250 teams certified by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to respond to disasters anywhere in the world.
Eric Gray, who is stationed at the Santa Ynez Airport, has been partnered with Riley, a golden Labrador retriever, since October 2009.
"I know we still have a long way to go to achieve full deployment readiness, and we are excited to begin that stage of our training. We want to give back to the community and country by being there to find people when we're called upon to respond," Gray said.
The FEMA certification qualifies the duo not only to help with missing-person searches but also to find people who have been buried alive by collapsed buildings, mudslides or other natural disasters.
To earn the certification, Riley had 40 minutes to find four to six people hidden in 6,000- to 15,000-square-foot piles of rubble. Gray had to ensure that Riley covered the entire area, leaving no one behind.
If the dog had become distracted, the team would have been disqualified. Riley also had to cover unstable ground at fast speeds and had to show a willingness to search independently, out of Gray's sight.
Gray and Riley trained with the Ojai-based National Disaster Search Dog Foundation for 10 months, attending multi-handler training exercises twice a week in Southern California.
Riley, who weighs about 70 pounds, sees the training as a game, and his reward is a toy, Gray said.
Man and dog are together at all hours of the day. When Gray's shift ends, Riley goes home to Camarillo with him.
The other search dog team in Santa Barbara County is the pairing of Linda Tacconelli, a civilian, and Joe, a Labrador retriever, who became FEMA certified in 2009.
Riley succeeds Duke, a chocolate Labrador retriever, who retired from active service with the county fire department in 2008.
In his career, Duke and engineer-medic Howard Orr responded to the World Trade Center site after the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the San Simeon earthquake in 2003, and the La Conchita mudslide in 2005.
Gray said he was inspired by the work that Orr and Duke did for nine years and wanted to be a part of it.
Duke, now 121⁄2 years old and retired, continues to live with Orr and his family.
For more information on the Search Dog Foundation, log onto www.searchdog foundation.org.
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