K-9 teams with the Los Angeles County Fire Department and the Orange County Fire Authority traveled to Texas Wednesday to assist with search-and-recovery efforts in the deadly floods that have killed more than 100 people.
The California Office of Emergency Services activated the LA County K-9 teams on Tuesday. They departed from LAX around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Fire Capt. Celina Serrano and K-9 Prentiss, Firefighter Paramedic Jonathan Munguia and K-9 Clifford, along with Search Team Manager Fire Capt. Michael Devine, are expected to be deployed for 14 days, according to the LACFD.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of central Texas,” Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said. “I am grateful to California Governor Gavin Newsom and Cal OES for deploying our LACoFD canine teams to assist in the search and recovery efforts.”
The flooding occurred over the July 4 weekend in central Texas and killed at least 102 people, with another 160 people missing. The dead included 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic, a Christian girls camp in Hunt, Texas.
“We just want to do our job, and this is what we worked hard for,” Serrano told KTLA5 prior to departing. “He’s worked hard for all these years. Prentiss is trained to find human remains, so it’s going to be more of a body recovery on our end. And it’s just being focused (on) what our mission is.”
A pair of K-9 teams from the Orange County Fire Authority also departed from LAX Wednesday morning to assist in Texas search efforts.