With the specters of both the Meron disaster and the synagogue collapse in Givat Ze’ev still haunting Israel’s collective consciousness and an Israeli delegation searching for survivors in the collapsed apartment building in Miami, the Israel Dog Unit (IDU) took part today (Monday) in a special exercise in Kiryat Motzkin, in the IDF’s Home Front Command Haifa district.
IDF, INP, IDU, United Hatzalah, and municipal rescue teams discuss the exercise scenarios and how best to respond to each. (Photo: IDU public relations)
The exercise simulated a mass casualty incident caused by the collapse of a building. Building collapse can be triggered by acts of war or terror, seismic events, construction flaws, weather anomalies, and more, and have proved to be potentially deadly to hundreds of people at a time.
The IDF’s Home Front Command, INP, IDU, United Hatzalah, and representatives of the municipalities of Haifa and Kiryat Motzkin took part in simulating their responses to such an incident. IDU volunteers demonstrated their proprietary search and rescue incident management software and the many ways in which their specially trained service dogs could assist in rescuing survivors or locating casualties under rubble.