Spotted: Canine in training to be rescue dog

On Saturday and Sunday March 18 and 19, the Menlo Park Fire Protection District and FEMA California Task Force 3 hosted a Canine Certification Evaluation at the Menlo Park Fire Protection District Rescue Site.

Eight of those teams have been training for the past 12 to 24 months to detect live humans in a disaster situation. Five teams will be testing in Human Remains Detection. A certification is valid for three years.

There are approximately 250 Live Find Dogs and 75 Human Remains Detection Dogs certified to FEMA standards in the United States.

Canine teams from California Task Force 3 have deployed to some of the largest disasters in the United States since the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989. Those deployments include Oklahoma City, the Space Shuttle Columbia recovery, the World Trade Center, and more recently, the Montecito debris flow and the Camp Fire in Paradise, California.