site.bta20 Rescue Dogs Join Disaster Response Training near Bansko
Twenty rescue dogs and 24 handlers from across Bulgaria are taking part in disaster and emergency response training in the Bansko area, the Bansko municipality's press office said Friday.
The dogs and handlers are from the dog rescue group of the Bulgarian Red Cross's Mountain Rescue Service.
Training takes place in the mountains and at a specialized training ground near Draglishte, a village in Razlog Municipality, built with support from the municipalities of Bansko and Razlog. Specially prepared buildings are also used for practical exercises, recreating realistic conditions in various disaster scenarios.
The course covers responses to earthquakes, floods, fires and other emergencies, Bansko Municipality added. The municipality recalled that a team from the group joined rescue operations after the devastating earthquakes in Turkiye in 2023, with the dogs and their handlers helping to search for and rescue people. The group also took part in rescue operations following disasters in Turkiye in 1999 and Armenia in 1988, the municipal press office added.
The training assesses the dogs' readiness, includes individual training and provides certification for those ready for operational deployment, group leader and mountain rescuer with the Bansko unit Atanas Ukov told BTA during the group's previous training course. Ukov said the training ground near Razlog was built specifically to simulate earthquake rescue operations. It has shafts designed for a person to enter safely, allowing their scent to escape as it would after an earthquake so that dogs can practise locating people trapped under rubble.
/KT/
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