Congratulations to all the teams from across the country who achieved FEMA Certification this weekend, including SDF-trained teams Eric Darling & Ben (Pennsylvania Task Force 1) and Frankie Grant & Merlin (Utah Task Force 1)!
On January 21 & 22, 2017, FEMA canine teams from across the nation gathered in Plantation, FL to participate in an evaluation of their skills as National Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Live Find teams. This CE marks Eric & Ben's second Re-certification and Frankie & Merlin's first, making both Search Teams deployable and ready to respond with their task forces throughout the country.
To achieve Certification, a canine-handler team has forty minutes to clear two rubble piles of approximately 15,000 square feet a piece, locating the 4-6 victims “trapped” alive within them. This process must be repeated every three years in order to maintain active deployment status.
Thank you to Florida Task Force 2 for hosting the evaluation, as well as Utah Task Force 1 and Pennsylvania Task Force 1 for supporting the teams!
See what Frankie had to say about how it feels to be FEMA Certified:
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3-li4fMwgA[/embedyt]
See Ben and Merlin in action during their test:
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MV2kojS50E[/embedyt] [embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wJJST6Wuew[/embedyt]