Mickey attends mine rescue exercise

Mickey, Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service's live scent rescue dog, recently attended an exercise in Wales along with his handler Paul West.

The team were working alongside the London Fire & Rescue Services own Urban Search and Rescue team.

The exercise was a mine rescue and took place over two days in Dinas in the Rhondda, Wales, involving a simulation of a collapsed three storey building with an unknown number of casualties inside that were either trapped or missing.

Paul explained: “I worked alongside another dog handler from Greater Manchester Fire Service. Mickey is trained to detect ‘live scents’ and he can go into areas the team cannot easily reach to locate casualties.

Mickey found several casualties which London’s Urban Search and Rescue teams were able to rescue. This involved their teams shoring the collapsed building to make it safer to work in, breaking through concrete and other building materials before getting a Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) paramedic in to treat the casualty who was then packaged for safe removal from the building.”

Mickey is a three and a half year old springer spaniel and part of Station 60 based at Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service headquarters in Clyst St George.

The advantage of using Mickey at incidents is the speed he can find a lost person, as well as being able to cover vast areas in a relatively short time and access areas that would be too dangerous for rescuers to enter.

Mickey is shown barking on finding a casualty hidden behind the walling.