Amid the ruins and ashes of what was once a luxurious Malibu building, dogs run, bark and search for victims of the fires that ravaged Los Angeles.
Tulla, a labrador, pauses near a gas bottle that was supposed to fuel a barbecue and begins to bark.
His rescue master doesn’t see anything but the dog smells something thanks to his extraordinary sense of smell.
So, we bring in another canine whose behavior suggests that one of the dozens of people still missing in the disaster could well be buried there.
According to a provisional report, at least 27 people died in the two most devastating fires, those in the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, northwest of Los Angeles, and in the city of Altadena, to the north.
For Marco Rodriguez, Los Angeles County firefighters, dogs are “crucial” to searches.
The firefighter estimates that “thousands of houses have burned here and that around 15 people are missing”.
– “Full-fledged” first aiders –
So, “we do our best” and the dogs are rescuers “in their own right”, he told AFP.
For the thousands of firefighters mobilized, the last ten days have been particularly physically demanding. And even more psychologically for the local rescuers, who see their city ravaged.
But for dogs, it seems like a “game”, recognizes Joshua Davis, who came from San Francisco with his black Labrador, Bosco.
-“They crawl on the rubble, they like it, it’s like a huge playground for them,” notes the firefighter.
If dogs do not suffer the emotional shock that their owners can feel, the dangers for their health are legion: “There are a lot of shards of glass, nails and various debris that can hurt the dogs,” warns Mr. Davis.
And like “all firefighters”, Bosco “works and must be fed and trained”, he says.
The Labrador was originally trained to be a guide, but it was a “complete failure” because he was far too energetic, his master explains.
Ideal energy for searching for bodies.
“When they detect a smell, they start barking, I then look for the victim and I reward Bosco,” says Mr. Davis.
Of course, dogs are not infallible and there are many false alarms in search operations. But in the end, they dramatically reduce the workload on humans.
“Many dogs can cover the area of a collapsed building in less than five minutes” while “it takes four to five firefighters for ten to 20 minutes” to do the same job, calculated Joshua Davis.
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