Hero’s ordeal in

MIKE and Echo were part of the UK Fire Service Overseas Response Team, helping in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. A few days in, it all became too much. “It was 90 degrees, the heat was intense,” explained Mike. “And Echo had done more searches on the third day than he’d done in his previous three years of service.

“He got very bad heat exhaustion. We were searching a building and he collapsed. I thought he’d had a heart attack, his eyes had rolled back in his head.

“I thought I’d lost him. We got him back to base where a vet put him on a drip straight away and he slept for 48 hours.

“I’d been in the job for 16 years and I’d never seen a dog so exhausted. He had worked himself to a standstill because we asked him to and it still upsets me now to think about it.”

Echo carried out 46 searches over a fortnight but every victim he traced had already died.

“Haiti was hell on earth,” said Mike.”he helped us find victims buried deep within collapsed buildings.

“I will always remember his whining as he struggled to fathom why he was surrounded by the scent of death. He had been taught to find the living but under those circumstances it was impossible. It was heartbreaking to listen to.”

Back in the UK, Echo scoured buildings for missing people in the aftermath of gas explosions.

“Being a search and rescue dog is as dangerous as it can get,” explained Mike. “We send them in