Gallery and 1st Person: Rescue Dog Pearl, Along With L.A. Firefighters and Dogs, Aids in Japan Rescue

Former South Pasadena Patch Editor Sonia Narang is reporting on the aftermath of the Japan earthquake from Osaka, Japan.

is hard at work in Ofunato City, Japan, as part of a search team from Los Angeles.

Freezing temperatures, snowfall and lack of electricity did not deter a team of 74 Los Angeles County Fire Department firefighters from carrying out a difficult search and rescue mission last week in and around Ofunato City, 330 miles north of Tokyo.

The large-scale destruction caused by the magnitude 8.9 earthquake and resulting tsunami on March 11 made the rescue work a complicated effort, said L.A. County Fire Battalion Chief Dave Stone, via telephone from Ofunato City.

"The debris piles are 30 to 40 feet high. There are vehicles on top of houses. There are lots of configurations for where people could be trapped," Stone said. "Rescue people are climbing on top of cranes and debris piles are not stable," he added. “What nature can do is almost mind-boggling.”

Large tsunami waves caused by the earthquake wiped out towns and villages along the northeastern coast of the country. As of Saturday, the death toll climbed to more than 7,000 people, and more than 11,000 people were missing.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a government agency that provides humanitarian assistance overseas, dispatched the L.A. County firefighters to Japan two days after they returned from an earthquake rescue mission in New Zealand. The California team was joined by firefighters from Fairfax, Va., and the United Kingdom.

In addition, the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation dispatched six search-and-rescue dogs to look for survivors in the debris with their firefighter handlers.

The firefighters and search dogs arrived at Misawa U.S. Air Force Base in northern Japan on March 12. They were transported in military vehicles to Ofunato City, a hard-hit coastal town six hours south of the air base. The California and Virginia teams carried 45 tons of equipment with them, and can function self-sufficiently for up to 10 days. 

Firefighters and search dogs looked for victims in the debris, but were unable to find survivors, according to L.A. County Fire Captain Marc Savage. He is in Los Angeles but checks in frequently with his team in Japan. "Things are looking difficult," he said. “These places have just been leveled.”

Still, the firefighters and dogs will continue to search, Stone said, adding that he isn't sure when the teams will return to the United States.

"We searched long and hard, pushing the dogs searching for live people," L.A. County firefighter Bill Monahan said earlier this week. They worked in the rain and snow, and stayed in a school gymnasium with other international firefighter teams. The rescuers brought their own food, water, shelter, heaters, shower facilities and turned the gym into a “mini-city,” Stone said.

The dogs bark if they find a victim. Each dog is paired with a firefighter handler from the Los Angeles area.

The Search Dog Foundation rescued the canines from shelters and trained them. “The dogs and their handlers are inseparable,” said Janet Reineck, spokesperson for the foundation. The dogs live with the firefighters,  she said, and become part of the family.

L.A. County firefighter/paramedic Jasmine Segura of Redondo Beach has worked with her black lab, Cadillac, since 2007.

"He’s very calm until he sees a toy," she said. "Then he becomes very driven and would go through a brick wall to reach that toy."

Segura and Cadillac spent 16 days in Haiti after last year's earthquake, searching for survivors in massive amounts of wreckage. Seven canine disaster search teams found 12 victims in Haiti.

The firefighters and dogs haven't found any survivors in Japan, Stone said, partly because Japan’s robust earthquake and tsunami warning system notified residents 13 to 15 minutes before the waves submerged homes, cars and streets.

“The early warning sirens went off and people were able to move to higher ground,” he said. Many others perished when the water engulfed complete areas and knocked over homes. Some of those bodies have been recovered.

Stone said the American firefighters received logistical support from the Osaka Fire Department and local firefighters.

"There's a good partnership between local and international teams," he said, noting that L.A. firefighters also coordinate efforts with other departments when fighting brush fires in California.

"Task force members remove a layer of debris after it is searched and then we work the next layer," firefighter Gary Durian said of the process to find survivors.

“The hand that’s been dealt to the rescuers is a challenging one,” Savage said. "They're exposed to the elements and it's a dire situation. We're monitoring the radiological materials very closely."

Stone said the firefighters have not been exposed to the radiation released from the Fukushima nuclear power plant reactors because of their location 150 miles north. The firefighters have used dosimeters to measure radiation levels, which have been normal in their area, according to Stone.

Stone added that temperatures have dropped to freezing and the snow has posed a challenge. “This is the first time we’ve worked in cold weather,” he said.

On Thursday morning, the school in which the firefighters are staying invited the team leaders to attend the sixth-grade graduation. It was the first time the students attended school since the disaster.

“There is a high amount of resolve among the people here,” Stone said. “They are very respectful and are trying to sort things out.”

For more information and updates on the Search Dog Foundation's work in Japan, click here. For updates from the Virgina Task Force, click here.