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4 July 2025
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Featured FRI Magazine article: Disaster search dogs in South Africa by Neels de Klerk
Breede Valley Fire, Rescue and Disaster Management Services’ Altridge Matthee with Lacey during a training exercise
A light commercial vehicle converted to transport the K9s
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Fire fighter/K9-handler Altridge Matthee with Lacey
Lacey, a three-year old crossbreed Border Collie x Jack Russell
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This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Disaster search dogs in South Africa
By Neels de Klerk, station commander: fire safety, Breede Valley Fire, Rescue and Disaster Management Services (at the time of writing this article) (FRI Vol 3 no 7). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Disaster search dogs in South Africa
By Neels de Klerk, station commander: fire safety, Breede Valley Fire, Rescue and Disaster Management Services (at the time of writing)
Are we really up there with the best in the world if we don’t comply fully with international standards? Although there were several teams deployed to international disasters over the last couple of years, these teams did not have the luxury of having trained disaster search dogs (DSDs) deployed as part of their resources capability.
With local natural disasters and building collapses on the increase annually, the need for specialised DSDs within the fire service in South Africa has become an essential tool that can no longer be ignored. It is important that decision makers plan and commit budgets to make this happen and to ensure the success of developing national standards that align with international standards like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) standard for DSDs in the United States.
History in South Africa
The K9 search and rescue (K9SAR) function has always been seen as a South African Police Service (SAPS) function and therefore it was seen that there was no need for developing this resource within the fire service. The SAPS K9 SAR units are also air scenting dogs and is trained to find life and cadaver scent but does not discriminate between the two. Being a handler on a rubble pile during a disaster is also a specialist function as far as experience of these types of incidents and the rescue work related is concerned. The focused bark alert, what a dog does when it finds live human sent, is also the only internationally recognised alert that DSDs should be giving to the handler. The DSD is trained to find live human scent and it must be an unmistakably alerted on. The success of any live find by an urban search and rescue (USAR) team is hugely depended on the K9 team working with them.
The first time dogs were trained in SA was in 2009 when a partnership between members from City of Johannesburg EMS and K9 Search and Rescue Association (K9 SARA) South Africa were formed to train DSDs ready for the 2010 soccer world cup. The K9SARA was the only organisation at the time that was training dogs to search for only live persons and was a valuable partner in assisting with the desired outcomes of this partnership. The teams consisted of 3 privately owned dogs from COJEMS and four dogs from K9SARA and they were trained to comply with the FEMA Type 2 qualification standard.
The permanent solution
This however was only a temporary solution as after the 2010 world cup this resource declined as no need was identified to keep this project alive. The recent increase in incidents involving collapse structures, floods and high winds proves that DSD teams are a necessity in the fire service in South Africa. How many times have we heard that some resources in the fire service are not necessary because of the lack of the number of incidents requiring that specific resource? That was then proven the wrong decision when an incident occur and the resource is not available.
What makes dogs unreplaceable?
A German Shepherd has 220 million receptor cells where humans have only five million. Despite the different technological advances in various fields there have been no successes to develop something that can imitate a dog’s nose. This means that one dog does the work of about 40 persons and is obviously much more effective because of his scenting abilities. Search dogs have proven to be consistently useful in locating victims trapped beneath debris, mud and water. Their acute scenting ability allows a trained dog to detect and alert on human scent traveling through crevices and voids, as well as at the surface of water and mud.
How we do it? The team follows a general progression of training steps, always with the final goal in mind, finding the victim. Since each dog and handler is different, and each team works differently together, the training plan is always modified to fit the needs of the team. The process of training the disaster search dog can take anywhere from six months to two years, depending on the skill of the handler, the drive of the dog, and the amount of time the team can devote to training. Ever heard the joke: “why is the badge on the front door of a dog unit vehicle,…so that the handler knows where to get in”? Although dogs are usually independent in spirit and know their jobs well, a lot of time is spend on training the handler in skills and knowledge regarding the behaviour of dogs and their abilities. It takes a well-trained handler to manage the dog’s search and ensure that the dog is able to work in the most effective manner possible. Also, since disaster search is an inherently dangerous process, handlers must learn how to assess scene safety in order to minimise the risk to themselves and their dogs.
By Neels de Klerk, station commander: fire safety, Breede Valley Fire, Rescue and Disaster Management Services (at the time of writing this article) (FRI Vol 3 no 7). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Disaster search dogs in South Africa
By Neels de Klerk, station commander: fire safety, Breede Valley Fire, Rescue and Disaster Management Services (at the time of writing)
Are we really up there with the best in the world if we don’t comply fully with international standards? Although there were several teams deployed to international disasters over the last couple of years, these teams did not have the luxury of having trained disaster search dogs (DSDs) deployed as part of their resources capability.
With local natural disasters and building collapses on the increase annually, the need for specialised DSDs within the fire service in South Africa has become an essential tool that can no longer be ignored. It is important that decision makers plan and commit budgets to make this happen and to ensure the success of developing national standards that align with international standards like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) standard for DSDs in the United States.
History in South Africa
The K9 search and rescue (K9SAR) function has always been seen as a South African Police Service (SAPS) function and therefore it was seen that there was no need for developing this resource within the fire service. The SAPS K9 SAR units are also air scenting dogs and is trained to find life and cadaver scent but does not discriminate between the two. Being a handler on a rubble pile during a disaster is also a specialist function as far as experience of these types of incidents and the rescue work related is concerned. The focused bark alert, what a dog does when it finds live human sent, is also the only internationally recognised alert that DSDs should be giving to the handler. The DSD is trained to find live human scent and it must be an unmistakably alerted on. The success of any live find by an urban search and rescue (USAR) team is hugely depended on the K9 team working with them.
The first time dogs were trained in SA was in 2009 when a partnership between members from City of Johannesburg EMS and K9 Search and Rescue Association (K9 SARA) South Africa were formed to train DSDs ready for the 2010 soccer world cup. The K9SARA was the only organisation at the time that was training dogs to search for only live persons and was a valuable partner in assisting with the desired outcomes of this partnership. The teams consisted of 3 privately owned dogs from COJEMS and four dogs from K9SARA and they were trained to comply with the FEMA Type 2 qualification standard.
The permanent solution
This however was only a temporary solution as after the 2010 world cup this resource declined as no need was identified to keep this project alive. The recent increase in incidents involving collapse structures, floods and high winds proves that DSD teams are a necessity in the fire service in South Africa. How many times have we heard that some resources in the fire service are not necessary because of the lack of the number of incidents requiring that specific resource? That was then proven the wrong decision when an incident occur and the resource is not available.
What makes dogs unreplaceable?
A German Shepherd has 220 million receptor cells where humans have only five million. Despite the different technological advances in various fields there have been no successes to develop something that can imitate a dog’s nose. This means that one dog does the work of about 40 persons and is obviously much more effective because of his scenting abilities. Search dogs have proven to be consistently useful in locating victims trapped beneath debris, mud and water. Their acute scenting ability allows a trained dog to detect and alert on human scent traveling through crevices and voids, as well as at the surface of water and mud.
How we do it? The team follows a general progression of training steps, always with the final goal in mind, finding the victim. Since each dog and handler is different, and each team works differently together, the training plan is always modified to fit the needs of the team. The process of training the disaster search dog can take anywhere from six months to two years, depending on the skill of the handler, the drive of the dog, and the amount of time the team can devote to training. Ever heard the joke: “why is the badge on the front door of a dog unit vehicle,…so that the handler knows where to get in”? Although dogs are usually independent in spirit and know their jobs well, a lot of time is spend on training the handler in skills and knowledge regarding the behaviour of dogs and their abilities. It takes a well-trained handler to manage the dog’s search and ensure that the dog is able to work in the most effective manner possible. Also, since disaster search is an inherently dangerous process, handlers must learn how to assess scene safety in order to minimise the risk to themselves and their dogs.