Rubble
(Missing persons covered in rubble)

In 1989 the worst earthquake of the last century hit San Francisco. 
The city situated on the west side of the American continent had two gigantic earth plates hitting into each other. The crack line that is several kilometres wide, the San Andreas crack, marks the plate border. 
Every year the plates move 4 centimetres towards each other. Because of this one plate slides under the other. The built up tension is released as an earthquake. Since man can remember the west coast has been hit by earthquakes. The oldest movie about an earthquake is from 1906. 

The earthquake of 1994 in L.A. reached a strength of 6.6 on the scale of Richter. It was a strong tremble but not the all-destroying earthquake that scientists have been predicting for the last 30 years. 9.5 million people in California live on a barrel of explosives that can explode any time. 

LISAR has specially certified (NRHB and KNPV) rescue dogs to track down missing persons under the rubble. Our dogs are selected and trained with self preserving drifts so that they can keep up the work for a long time. 

After a call LISAR will come to the place as soon as possible and start with the rescue operation. The team completely trust the dogs with their highly developed and trained nose to search the rubble systematically. 

During the rescue operation the dog is not distracted by noise, smoke, machines or other people. When a dog locates a body he will make the handler know the exact location by barking and scratching. 
On the advice of the LISAR-personnel other help organisations can rescue the people from their trapped position. The most recent action that LISAR took part in was the second quake in Turkey where they were asked to search the rubble. 
The report made by LISAR concerning this operation is to be found in our action overview (only Dutch).