Search Team responds to building explosion in Northern California

Gunner moves inside, searching the debris.

Around 4:40 am on Thursday, May 7, 2020, Alameda County Fire Department responded to a commercial building explosion in San Leandro.

SDF-trained Search Dog Gunner’s handler, Alex Mengell, was requested by the department to respond and confirm no one left behind inside the building after it exploded.

Arriving first responders found a heavily damaged warehouse with the center of the roof blown off and collapsed inside the building, with large amounts of debris. They extinguished the fire inside and did an initial search, as there were originally reports of five people inside at the time of the explosion.

Alex shared his experience with us:

I received the call from home and responded to the site, finding a large warehouse, about 100 feet by 200 feet, with roof debris outside and heavy damage inside with multiple potential void spaces. After speaking with the San Leandro Police Department, I felt comfortable running Gunner on a search. Starting with a perimeter search, Gunner showed no indication of human scent, so we proceeded inside.
Gunner made quick work of the large amounts of debris inside, impressing our fire department public information officer with how effortlessly a search dog can get over debris and how quickly he works. After completing the search, I notified those in charge that Gunner gave no indication of human scent and ended the search. To give Gunner a good reward for a job well done, we hid our public information officer in the back of a warehouse, and Gunner made quick work of finding him and alerting.

This marks the fourth deployment for Alex and Gunner, and they did a wonderful job of making sure no one was left behind in the debris.

Two people from the scene were taken to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries while the other two men were arrested on suspicion of charges related to the illegal production of concentrated cannabis products.

Video of Gunner and Alex searching was shared by Alameda County Fire and can be viewed on their social media: