The Salina Fire Department has a member of its team who has rare skills. The agency’s K-9 is one of only two dogs of his kind in the country.

According to the City of Salina, Fire Marshal Troy Long and his K-9 Hoke tested and passed their Foundation Skills Assessment with five other teams from the Kansas Task Force K-9 Unit on March 16th at Crisis City.

The team is now deployable assets for live-find disaster search in Kansas.

Hoke has now become one of two working K-9s in the United States to be certified as a dual purpose K-9 in accelerant detection/search and rescue. He is also one of three fire department based search dogs in the State of Kansas.

Over the next five weeks Long and Hoke will be preparing for a FEMA certification which makes them deployable anywhere in the United States.

“These K-9s are an invaluable resource not just across the state of Kansas, but the country. They have the ability to search and locate living victims trapped in structures and debris caused by natural and manmade disasters in a very short amount of time,” said Long.