Caber, the Delta police's trauma K9, recently returned from Alberta where he provided support to residents of Fort McMurray as they returned home more than a month after a wildfire ravaged the area.
Caber and handler Kim Gramlich, the department's victim services program coordinator, were dispatched to the northern Alberta city as part of B.C.'s Disaster Psychosocial Response Team.
Run through the Provincial Health Services Authority, the team responds during largescale emergencies and disasters with a focus on the psychosocial needs of the public and first responders before, during and after an incident.
"It can be for just about anything and to just about anywhere," Gramlich said, adding the team specifically asked for Caber and this was the first time the canine has been used in a large-scale disaster.
Gramlich and Caber were in Fort McMurray for six days as residents started returning to the city. "Our role was to provide emotional support," Gramlich said. "Our job was to just talk to people and check in and see how they're doing."
Residents were allowed to return home in stages.
Over the first two days, she said, those returning were those whose homes were OK. Those coming back to town on days three and four were people whose homes were destroyed in the fire.
"We did meet a lot of people who did lose their homes," Gramlich said.
The pair also ended up working with a lot of the first responders.
Gramlich said about 10 per cent of the population of the city lost their homes to the fire. However, 30 per cent of the city's first responders, who were on the front lines of the battle against the blaze, lost their homes.
As with his work with Delta Police Department's victim services unit, Caber's main job in Fort McMurray is just to be there to provide comfort to those in need.
"There is a huge cathartic response to petting a dog," Gramlich said. "Touch is healing, touch is helpful."
As for Caber, "He loved it," she said, adding the pair logged 12-and 13-hour days.
"My job as his handler is to monitor his stress levels," she said. "I never once saw him stressed."
There is a long history of dogs being used in disaster situations in the U.S. Canines were brought in during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and during the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
However, their use is still fairly new in Canada. Caber became Canada's first trauma dog when he joined the Delta Police Department's victim services unit in 2010. Gramlich said there are now 16 trauma dogs in use across the country.
In Fort McMurray, Caber and Gramlich spent some time at the reception centres set up for returning residents, but the pair spent even more of their time visiting with police officers and firefighters.
The pair spent a lot of time on the bridge where first responders welcomed residents back. Firefighters and police officers were on the bridge 24 hours a day over the four days residents returned home. "It was good for the first responders," Gramlich said. "Everyone was honking their horns as they came back into town. It really united the community."
