The Phorce Is With Them As Rescue Workers Seek Survivors: Video

TAMPA, FL — This is one law enforcement K-9 whose bark is defintely bigger than his bite.

Instead of helping to apprehend criminals, Phorce the rescue dog uses his keen sense of smell to sniff out survivors of a mass disaster. When his nose detects someone alive in the rubble, he loudly barks to alert his handler.

The black Labrador retriever and his handler, Tampa Fire Rescue driver engineer Britney Bishop, are among four teams of dogs and handlers from Tampa Bay deployed to the partial collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South condominium complex that occurred in Surfside Thursday.

Bishop and Phorce are members of Florida's Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 3, a team of 72 people from Hillsborough County, Tampa and St. Petersburg fire rescue crews — along with doctors and structural engineers.

The task force is one of 20 teams in the country trained and accredited by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to respond to man-made and natural disasters.

After receiving the call from FEMA, Urban Search and Rescue teams have a six-hour window to mobilize members, load up supplies, gear and search-and-rescue equipment into the task force's convoy of 24 vehicles including 18-wheelers, and head to the site of the disaster.

Task Force 3 received its summons Friday night and was on its way to Surfside before dawn Saturday.

Phorce is one of about two dozen dogs in Surfside this week working with their handlers in rotating shifts.

Each dog works about 10 minutes at a time, usually during a shift change or when equipment is being switched out and the site is quiet. While their handlers use specialized equipment to listen for live victims, the dogs sniff through the mounds of rubble, searching for victims alive and dead.

Task Force 3 will be in Surfside for seven days before being relieved by a fresh FEMA task force.

Tampa Fire Rescue

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