Team Info
Task Force: California Task Force 2 (CA-TF2)
Agency: Los Angeles County Fire
Level: FEMA Certified
Most Recent Certification: March 4, 2018
Search Dog Info
Breed: Black Lab
Sex: Male
Born: October 16, 2015
Donated by: Anonymous
Puppy Raiser: Pluis Davern
Sponsors: Mars, Inc., Celeste Matesevac
Named by: Nancy Stone
Deacon was privately donated to SDF, and arrived at our National Training Center in Santa Paula, California on December 26, 2016. What a present Deacon turned out to be! The young Black Labrador was as much a natural at Urban Disaster Search and Rescue work as we have ever seen!
Within a few weeks of working with him SDF trainers reported, “Deacon is a crack up! He works with SUCH enthusiasm! He is very, very quick and intense, and barks so. He is going to be a rock star Search Dog.”
Deacon approached each stage of training with the same energy, intelligence, and athleticism, and on September 1, 2017, Deacon was partnered with Captain Mike Toepfer of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. As members of California Task Force 2 (CA-TF2), this team is eligible to deploy internationally when disasters strike.
Deacon and Mike were focused on training together in order to achieve Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Certification, which they accomplished in Riverside, CA on March 4, 2018, and again on October 3, 2021.
Their first call to duty was in March 2018 to pre-stage ahead of a storm system in Santa Barbara, CA where a deadly mudslide had occurred two months prior. Fortunately for residents, history did not repeat, and no one was harmed.
Mike and Deacon were called upon again when a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey, Syria, and the surrounding region early on February 6, 2023.