Woman missing after gas explosion

On 25 May 2021, our Brazilian member or­ga­ni­sa­ti­on Corpo de Bombeiros Militar do Estado de Santa Catarina (CBMSC) re­ceived an alert that an explosion had oc­curred in a residential building in Flo­ri­a­nó­po­lis with one person reported missing.

More than 40 firefighters were deployed, tirelessly trying to contact and locate the resident buried under the rubble. Also in­volved in the search, was search and res­cue dog handler Valdeley Marques with his Lab­ra­dor Retriever Marley.

While based on information from the vic­tim's sister, the search for the missing per­son was first carried out in the area of the bedroom, Marley indicated a find in the area around the kitchen. After a 14-hour mission, the woman was found at the spot located by the Labrador, in the im­medi­ate vicinity of the explosion site. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, it was too late to help her.

Missions of this kind are physically and mentally de­mand­ing. Valdeley and Marley worked with great focus and the canine showed excellent intuition in this dra­mat­ic situation.

We thank both of them very much and express our deepest sympathy to the victim's relatives.