Cape Town - Hours after a building under construction collapsed in George on Monday, emergency rescue operations went into action.
Eighty-one people were reported to have been in the building in Victoria Street when it caved in.
Forty-two of those workers have been pulled from the rubble with 16 declared deceased. Thirty-six workers remain unaccounted for while 14 patients are currently hospitalized.
More than 200 rescuers were still working tirelessly to find trapped people as rescue operations surpassed the 121 hour mark as at 3pm on Saturday 11 May 2024.
A crucial component of the search and rescue operations through the week has been the sniffer dogs from the K9 units that have been deployed to the Garden Route town.
The site is difficult for rescuers to move around freely, and victims were located by sound and sight.
They needed the help of the K9 teams in a desperate race against the clock.
The dogs of the K9 units at the scene have received specialised training to support emergency personnel during rescues.
As the search for the missing workers continues, the four-legged creatures from the SAPS K9 Search and Rescue Unit, Gift of the Givers and volunteers of the K9 Search and Rescue Association of South Africa (Sara) have performed rescues throughout the week.
Echo, a German pointer, arrived in George on Monday at 8pm with his human partner Mariann Wilson, a volunteer with Sara, and immediately went into action.
Trained to find people buried in disaster situations, the dog sniffed through the massive slabs of concrete for hours to find the strongest scent.
The animals are taught to detect the scent of humans and trained to lie down and bark at a location to alert handlers that they have located a scent.
A second dog is sent in to see if it, too, detects the scent.
When both dogs verify the location, rescuers start to focus their digging and drilling efforts on that specific spot until they locate the victim.
By working through the night as part of an 8-hour rotating shift, four accurate positions have been sniffed out by the animals, leading to several workers being removed safely from the rubble.
Echo is just one of the dogs who have been commended for their work at the site.
Bond, a German shepherd named after spy James “007” Bond, has been actively working alongside his furry partner Abby, a Belgian shepherd.
Attached to the SAPS K9 Search and Rescue Unit, both dogs are trained to find people, dead or alive.
Bond and his handler, Sergeant Buyisile Makhosonke, spent hours manoeuvring their way through the rubble as the clock ran down in the search for the missing workers.
Bond’s continued barking and scratching at several points helped identify two key areas, but both victims had died.
Makhosonke said: “If the dog smells, he is going to go to that point and scratch or put his nose down, like Bond who was scratching at the point where the victims were found.”
Since their arrival after midnight on May 7, the Gift of the Givers’ team of three sniffer dogs have found four people who were then removed from the rubble by rescue personnel.
A Belgian malinois, a rottweiler and a Dutch shepherd and their handlers will continue their work in the quest to find missing workers even as heavier equipment was brought in to remove about 3 000 tons of concrete.
The Garden Route SPCA commended the dogs and their handlers for their work.
“These incredible dogs will contribute to saving many lives over the next few days. To every one of these heroes, we thank you and pray for your safety.”
Local government MEC Anton Bredell has also expressed his gratitude towards the animals who have played a crucial role in the search and rescue operations.
