The Conversation (0)
Alexandra Richards
Jun 18, 2017
The aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire saw fantastic collaboration between the emergency services, locals and the wider community in responding to the tragedy.
Firefighters worked tirelessly alongside police officers, Urban Search and Rescue modules and Metropolitan Police Disaster Victim Identification teams to search through the wreckage.
Everyone in the community has come together to lend a helping hand to those affected by the fire.
What may have surprised people most are the helping paws.
Specially trained fire dogs have been enlisted to access the most dangerous areas. The dogs go where humans can’t as they are lighter so can search damaged areas more efficiently.
Fire dogs are trained from a young age using positive reinforcement techniques.
These heroic dogs are given safety equipment not dissimilar to a regular fireman’s get up. The canines are provided with tiny boots to protect all four of their paws from heat and sharp objects.
With their heightened sense of smell the fire dogs are able to locate ignitable substances and even determine if a fire has been started deliberately.
London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton told Metro:
 This [the tower] is a large building, there will be a large amount of building work required internally.
Before we do that, we are going to utilise some specialist dog training teams that we have, that will go through the building and the surrounding area looking for any identification of people.
She added:
This will be a detailed fingertip search.
Obviously this will be a very slow and painstaking process.
Currently the number of lives lost in the fire stands at 30, however officials estimate that the tragedy could have claimed many more.
Because of the scale of the damage it has been difficult to identify remains that are found.
Due to their sense of smell, the dogs are able to help with this identification process.
HT Metro
More: A Kensington resident donated her council tax rebate to victims at Grenfell tower