We meet Diesel the search and rescue dog
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service have a very special hero and social media star on the payroll. Morag Bootland travels to Aberdeenshire to meet Diesel the search and rescue dog
When are goggles not goggles? When they are doggles of course. And there’s not a dog in Scotland who wears them better than Diesel, Scottish Fire and Rescue’s Urban Search and Rescue Dog. This sparky springer spaniel is based at Portlethen with his handler Gary Carroll, but as well as working in Aberdeenshire and across Scotland the pair can be deployed anywhere in the world to help rescue workers find casualties in the wake of building collapses, explosions or terrorist attacks.
Diesel travels to overseas disaster zones by helicopter and Gary describes him as one of the service’s most valuable pieces of equipment. ‘He’s the only thing we have that can pick up an unconscious casualty,’ says Gary. ‘We have listening devices and cameras, but they need to be used in conjunction with Diesel.’
Diesel is deployed either by land, sea or air to disaster zones and his doggles are an aid to prevent dust and grit getting in his eyes, especially when entering and exiting a helicopter. Meanwhile, his little booties protect his paws from sharp objects and broken glass while searching disaster zones.
One of the most hazardous situations that Diesel has found himself working in was when he and Gary were deployed to Nepal to search for survivors in the aftermath of the earthquake in 2015. Nearly 9,000 people died and over 22,000 people were injured as buildings collapsed in Kathmandu and landslides and avalanches hit the Himalayas.
‘It was a very dangerous situation,’ says Gary. ‘We’ve always got to risk assess at the scene of a disaster. We’re looking at the safety of fire fighters and of Diesel too. A lot of people ask how successful Diesel is at finding survivors, but if there isn’t anyone left alive then he’s not going to find them. But, he can prevent fire fighters going into a hazardous environment. He’s much lighter than me, so he’s less likely to cause a secondary collapse. Even if he doesn’t find anyone alive he can ensure that an area is clear so that we can declare it free of casualties. It means we can move our rescue team to another area to extricate people.’
Diesel is the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s first qualified dog and his success is in part down to Gary who first saw dogs being used in this way while he was working in the USA following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He had also seen dogs attend the Stockline Plastics explosion in Glasgow in 2004 and that spurred him on to train as a dog handler.
Diesel is a working dog, but the bond that he has with Gary is evident. The pair have always worked together. In fact, Gary owned Diesel’s mum and picked him out from a litter of pups at just eight weeks old. ‘The training starts from then,’ says Gary. ‘It’s all about confidence and environmental training, so getting them used to slippery floors and surfaces, banging noises, lots of people, and what we call the toy drive. He’s really keen on playing with a toy, whether it be a squeaky toy or a bit of rope for tug of war. It’s all mainly environmental and toy drives until maybe six months old when we would start introducing
a casualty or a victim. This would be a training person to assist us develop the dog. They would start running away with the toy and the dog would chase after them to get the toy back, because he’d been playing with it for so long in the six months previous and now he’s saying “that’s my toy and I want to get it back”.’
Diesel lives with Gary, and this helps them to have a really special relationship. ‘At work he keeps looking at me to see what we’re doing, he helps me and I look after him. It’s a great bond we have and even down time is good. It’s great to spend a bit of chilling time with him, to relax a wee bit, because work can be stressful at times. It’s good for me and the rest of the team to have the dogs there, just for a wee bit of relaxation time away from the incident that we’re working on. It’s good to be with him and watch him work.’
As well as being a valued member of the fire and rescue team, Diesel is now a social media star. Since opening his very own Twitter account (with a little assistance from his human helpers) in June 2018 he has accrued an impressive 4,457 followers who keep up-to-date with Diesel’s daily life and training.