Hinkle and Deegan Lakes is frequented this time of year for fishing and other leisure activities. Occasionally, the Bridgeport Fire Department and others in the area utilize the site for training purposes, including search and rescue drills.

 

Last Thursday, the lakes were utilized for a brand new purpose. Grafton Volunteer Fire Department’s K9 Search and Rescue team brought their cadaver dogs for training.

 

It was a windy afternoon – not the ideal conditions – but the unit still conducted a search, said Lisa Altman of Grafton Volunteer Fire Department’s K9 Search and Rescue team.

 

“We actually have a small boat with a trolling motor on it and we have a scent tank which is a tube and we run a hose in the water, which is anchored down,” Altman said. “From the shore, we use a tank and release air through the scent tube and it releases an odor into the water. That bubbles up to the surface and the dogs hit on the scent.”

 

Altman said her department’s K9 Search and Rescue unit is quite unique and it is utilized by departments from throughout the area.

 

“Preston County uses us a lot and they have a couple of cold cases they want us to work on,” she said. “We also worked with a house fire a while back. They knew people were in the house and needed to locate the bodies.”

 

The unit has also been used to help find missing persons. In that situation, the unit utilized its live find dogs, which are trained in wilderness search and rescue, too. One of those K9s recently received a certification in scent articles and just recently, he was used to help locate a weapon used in a Preston County murder.

 

The unit also has two rubble find dogs, which specialize in disaster situations. There are six individuals in the unit; five women and one man, Jim Long of Bridgeport.

 

Altman has two of the dogs, golden retrievers.

 

“The youngest one is not certified. She is still in training, but my oldest dog has a national certification with NAPWDA, the North American Police Work Dog Association.”

 

Four of the unit’s dogs are members of the FEMA Task Force, Altman said.

 

The dogs have trained in various training settings. Members of the unit discovered the Hinkle/Deegan Lake area through John Walker, who referred Altman to Bridgeport Parks and Recreation Director Don Burton, who Altman works with to coordinate training dates.

 

Altman said she is fairly new to the unit. Becoming involved seemed to make sense.

 

“I’ve just always had dogs and have always taken them to training,” she said. “I wanted to do something different to help the community. We do a lot of missing people searches, including those with autism and elderly people with dementia so it’s very rewarding to be able to help somebody.”

 

Two of the unit’s members have more than 20 years of experience and last year, were deployed to Oso, Washington to help with the March 2014 mudslide.

 

The unit’s first experience at Hinkle and Deegan Lakes wasn’t ideal because of weather, but Altman believes it could become an ideal training spot.

 

They hope to give it a second shot sometime next week, she said. 

 

Editor's note: Pictures of Altman and her dogs were not taken during the training at Hinkle and Deegan Lakes.