For more
than twenty five years I have been involved in many facets of
dog training and learning about canine behavior. This has been
an exciting journey that is not over yet. For the first fifteen
years I spent most of my time training dogs professionally in
the arena of obedience, personnel protection, tracking and Schutzhund.
In the beginning there were not many books written on any of
these particular disciplines as there are today. Most of the
training was by trial and error with a lot of imagination. I
did find some people in the area where I lived that had trained
dogs for different activities associated with sport or law enforcement.
None of the people that influenced my career knew anything about
Schutzhund or much about personal protection. So I kept learning
on my own.
For the
past ten years I have been involved with the training and maintaining
of detection dogs. This has been a very exciting move into the
realm of the unseen, as it relates to scent and how a canine
is able to detect such small traces of odor. I began experimenting
with tracking dogs and wondering why they would pick up their
heads when near the end of the track where the bad guy was hiding.
I began to see patterns of behavior that in the beginning I
used to correct for because everyone knows that a tracking dog
is obedient to the track and never lifts his head. This never
made since to me. Of course the tracking I was teaching was
sport tracking and it was not practical for what I wanted to
accomplish. I hadn't really said it out loud, but what I really
wanted to learn was how a dog is able to find someone at a great
distance from the point where the dog is started. At this point
I had trained over 100 dogs in different areas, but never got
into the area of detection dogs.
In the early
spring of 1996 I began learning all I could about Search and
Rescue dogs, how they work, and how scent was affected by the
environment. When I purchased Pacer, my foundation dog, I only
had an overview of what was needed to produce a qualified SAR
dog. In the spring of 1996 a new group was forming in the city
where I live and I decided to join and start my new partner
in training for SAR. This group started with four people. None
of the other people had any dog experience, but all were dedicated
to learn about SAR. The decision was made that we were going
to learn and start training. None of us had any idea on how
to train, but we got pointers from another group with experience,
and we were off. I took the lead, since I did have more of an
idea how dogs work, and the learning curve needed to bring a
dog to its potential.
We started
meeting once a week and the training began. I can remember times
when we just looked at each other and asked what had just taken
place with the dog and how he was able to find the victim in
such a short time. Other times we wondered what made situations
different and why the dog didn't find the victim. As time passed,
our group got larger.
Pacer was
the youngest dog in the group. I started imprinting what I wanted
from him at 8 weeks of age at home, and started bringing him
to the group. I imprinted tracking on him at the age of 16 weeks
and kept him air scenting at the same time. He can do either
air scenting or tracking, and does both in searches.
Pacer and I certified as a SAR Tech II team through the National
Association of Search and Rescue when he was 14 months old.
He was doing very well and is still a productive SAR dog today.
Pacer was certified as a Wilderness search dog. He is currently
trained in land and water cadaver. He is also using his detection
skills in other areas as well.
To get to
this level is very time consuming and one needs to maintain
focus on the task at hand. The toughest part of all of this
was after the certification for SAR Tech II was completed. Pacer
and I were truly a team and our desire was to be used in an
actual call out. This was very frustrating even though we were
assisting others in their quest to be certified. Little did
I know what was just on the horizon waiting to transpire.
On June
8, 1998 I got a call at 0900 from the local director of our
group telling me that a huge grain elevator had just blown up
and there were already causalities and some people trapped in
the elevator. I was to remain available on standby until I heard
from him. I was finally told to report to the DeBruce Grain
Elevator as some teams were at the scene in rescue mode.
This
writing is not intended to exalt me or Pacer but is an attempt
to give credit to all the people who participated in this effort
and also to pay homage to those who lost their lives.
This was a tremendous explosion that was heard for miles which
shook the ground and broke out widows of houses in the area.
The smoke could be seen many miles before arriving at the scene.
The cause of the blast was later determined as a spontaneous
ignition that is produced when grain dust is present and is
encapsulated. Grain elevator construction consists of pouring
concrete in one continuous pour to form the silos that hold
the grain in the elevator. The walls are 18'’ to 24'’ thick
and reinforced with re-bar for strength. This was a very huge
explosion.
Pacer
and I were the first dog team to be present on the scene. Response
teams were everywhere and even though you knew there was order,
it seemed chaotic. It didn't take long to set up an Incident
Command Center and it was elaborate. Everyone was busy attending
to their own duties as Pacer and I remained at I.C. C. waiting
for instructions. Several dog teams came in from other parts
of the state to assist in the search and rescue efforts. Some
of those team members were able to go down in the tunnels that
ran the length of the elevator. These tunnels were equipped
with conveyor belts to move grain to other parts of the elevator.
This is where everyone suspected that the majority of the workers
had been at the time of the blast. These dogs were unsuccessful
in their attempt to find anyone who survived the explosion.
By late
afternoon we got word that the Governor had declared the site
a disaster area and the FEMA dogs were to arrive on site at
any time. This would be of great help as these dogs were disaster
dogs and would only indicate on live finds. Upon the arrival
of the FEMA dogs our job was done and we took a break and went
home to recuperate from the day.
After FEMA
had been at DeBruce for several days and the hope of finding
anyone alive had faded, the FEMA team left for home. This left
the elevator in a recovery phase.
The structure
was very unstable and hanging debris was a threat to anyone
trying to work
around the elevator. All of the people had been accounted for
except one man, and he was nowhere to be found. With fires still
burning within the elevator it made the entire area a very eerie
place to be. Most of the structure was to be dismantled because
of the danger of collapse. They could not begin this part of
the operation until recovery of the last person was found and
brought out. Remember FEMA dogs were only trained to detect
live finds in a disaster search.
Five
days after the first explosion, with many personnel and volunteer
hours spent, it was time to change the focus of the search.
All along we were confident that some could have survived the
tremendous explosion. Now that Incident Command had given the
word that they were going into the recovery phase, the local
team was called out again. When FEMA showed up earlier in the
week we were all dismissed and told to stand down until further
notice. This is what we had been waiting for.
Pacer and
I arrived at I.C.C. and reported to the Commander. While we
were waiting for other dog teams to arrive, he invited me into
the Command Center and briefed me on the operation at hand.
I was not in charge of the dog teams but the Commander was wanting
to get the recovery phase started so they could deal with the
structural issues of the elevator. Nothing could happen until
we cleared the area. They wanted us to find out if the last
remaining individual was in the area of the Headhouse.
The
Headhouse is an office area in the center of the grain elevator.
This area housed the controls for the entire operation of the
elevator and also housed the large scales for weighing the grain.
Alongside the Headhouse is a set of railroad tracks for grain
cars to pull up and load. This is the area where, according
to eyewitnesses, this individual was last seen, prior to the
explosion. This area around the Headhouse was the most unstable
place to work. Due to the threat of collapse FEMA was not allowed
to work under this area in the tunnels. We would be working
above on the fallen structure of the Headhouse area.
The staging
area and the I.C.C was quite a distance from the grain elevator
for safety and for the purpose of relaying information to all
who were involved. On the ride to the Headhouse, smoke was coming
out of an area where there was no smoke before. We were assured
that it posed no danger to what we were asked to do. We had
three teams of dogs present and gathered for a brief look at
our situation. It was a horrible site to see. The present danger
was the hanging debris and drop-off sections that would plunge
25’ to 40’ into the tunnels below. Along with the dog teams
we were escorted by the fire department to ensure our safety.
Each team
had three fire fighters that accompanied us. Two of the fire
fighters were to keep watch on the hanging debris. The other
fire fighter kept a close watch on the handlers to ensure their
safety. We all would work over the same area of the Headhouse
one at a time. This was to insure that if one of our dogs indicated
in a particular area we could pull that dog off and get confirmation
from the other two. The wind was a factor and made the entire
operation a real challenge. The first dog up began to show interest
in a particular area. This dog kept coming back to the area
with every pass it made. It was agreed upon that the area was
suspect and that the other two dogs should be sent up one at
a time to confirm if we had a true indication or just latent
scent. The other dog went up, searched and came back down. It
was time for Pacer to go to work. Nobody knew where the first
dog had indicated so you might call this an impartial or blind
search. Pacer searched intently and was drawn to a corner of
the Headhouse, and then worked his way down the wall and stopped
in his tracks. I began to see a difference in his search pattern
and intensity as he kept going to the same area of interest
along the wall. The wind began to pick up and we were called
off the Headhouse and moved to a safe area away from hanging
debris.
This gave
us an opportunity to confer with each other and to debrief about
the indications that all the dogs had. We all came to the same
conclusion that the indication was latent scent and the source
could be anywhere. We searched for a few more hours and called
it a day, due to the lack of daylight. By the time we were transported
back to I.C.C. we were reasonably sure that the person we were
looking for was not in the Headhouse area and that the equipment
could come in and start to disassemble the Headhouse.
This was
quite an experience that will be with me always. I was very
proud of all who were there. I was sad for the loss of life
and still felt like we did a service to the families of the
victims. I felt honored to have worked with the many different
agencies that responded.
One week
later, the last remaining victim was found in a tunnel just
off of the Headhouse, 50’ or so from where we were searching.
Seven
men lost their lives on June 8, 1998 and ten men were injured
in the explosion at the DeBruce Grain Elevator. This is a list
of those who lost their lives: Jose Luis Duarte, 41; Noel
Jajera, 25; Jose Prajedes Ortiz, 24; Lanny Owen, 43; Victor
M. Castendeda, 26; Howard Goin, 65; Raymoundo Diaz-Vela, 23.
