WATCH ABOVE: Two service dogs and their owners have returned home from Nepal where they were part of the international search and rescue efforts. As Quinn Ohler reports, after more than a week away, their homecoming is bittersweet.
EDMONTON — Several members of the Canadian Search and Disaster Dogs Association, including two canines, returned to Edmonton Friday after spending eight days on the ground in Nepal.
“It was very difficult,” said team leader Silvie Montier.
Montier and her dog Cken were among those involved in a search and rescue mission in Nepal following last month’s devastating earthquake.
“No two missions are alike and this one was definitely very different. This was very hectic. The situation is really bad,” said Montier, who has worked with Cken for six years. Together, they’ve performed search and rescue missions all over the globe, including Haiti, Italy and Peru.
The group was in Europe on a two-week training mission when they were called in to assist in Nepal. They were stationed in Kathmandu and say the surrounding villages were hit hard by the deadly quake.
READ MORE: Massive reconstruction efforts needed after Nepal earthquake
Ryan Barbazuk, who was on the mission with his dog Enthea, says one of the biggest challenges was physically getting to the areas that needed the most help.
“A lot of the trouble, the destruction was out in these outer-lying villages,” he said. “In Nepal, in Kathmandu, 100 kilometres is six hours, maybe. You’re driving up switchbacks and up crazy roads … So that was the biggest thing, trying to get to these places and get the aid and help them when they’re so far away.”
“Everywhere we went there were collapsed buildings, or houses in that case mostly. We would just send the dogs and see if they would alert and if they would find somebody,” added Montier.
READ MORE: Engineers inspect quake-damaged buildings in Nepal’s capital
The dogs are trained for missing and lost people searches, and specialize in rubble searches.
“Dogs have a much greater sensitivity and can localize people from much farther away,” said Richard Lee, CSDDA president. “The person doesn’t have to be conscious and be able to respond in order for people to find them. The dogs can sniff them out even if they’re comatose.”
READ MORE: 101-year-old man found alive 1 week after Nepal earthquake
Now back in Edmonton, the team says it’s time to rest. But if asked, Barbazuk says he’d be back out on the ground in a heartbeat.
“The hardest part in this, in search and rescue, is to honour the rescuers whose time goes into it; to honour those who have been saved; to honour those who have died; to honour those who are lost and will never be found,” said Barbazuk.
“We don’t look at it in the number of lives saved, we look at it in the blessings that we were able to go and help, that we were able to come home to our families healthy and that our partners are healthy. And that we left the place a little better than when we first got there.”
The massive magnitude-7.8 earthquake on April 25 killed more than 7,800 people and injured thousands more.
With files from Quinn Ohler, Global News.
Comments