A Dog Found a Missing Man in His 70s After 5 Days, While a Drone Could Not Find Him... A Missing Man in His 50s Also Found

Unusually, Two Missing Persons Found Within a Day

It was reported that one 119 rescue dog saved two survivors in a single day.

119 rescue dog Gogo, deployed for missing person search, discovering the missing person. [Image source=Fire Department]

On the 24th, the Fire Agency announced that 'Gogo' (5), a 119 rescue dog Shepherd belonging to the Central 119 Rescue Headquarters Chungcheong·Gangwon Special Rescue Team, rescued missing persons in Danyang, Chungbuk, and Wonju, Gangwon, on the 20th. This is the first time that the same 119 rescue dog saved two people in one day.

On the morning of the 20th, Gogo rescued a missing man in his 50s in Danyang. After the missing person report was filed, search activities continued for five days, making a quick rescue necessary. In this situation, Gogo impressively found the missing person in about 25 minutes. On the same afternoon, Gogo found a missing person in their 70s with dementia symptoms in Wonju. During the Wonju search, about 40 personnel from the fire department and police, as well as helicopters and drones, were deployed to find the missing person, but the search was difficult. Here too, Gogo discovered the missing person sitting in the bushes about an hour after being deployed. Handler (rescue dog operator) Fire Officer Oh Yong-cheol said, "Swift rescue activities were more important than anything else amid the ongoing heatwave," adding, "Thanks to Gogo's efforts, we were able to rescue safely."

After finding the two missing persons that day, Gogo reportedly ate his favorite beef-flavored dog food to his heart's content. The name Gogo was given by the trainer during training at the 119 Rescue Dog Training Center. It means to keep moving forward without stopping at the rescue site. Rescue dog Gogo has been deployed as a rescue dog since April last year. It is known that this was the first time Gogo actually found missing persons in the field.

Currently, there are a total of 35 rescue dogs nationwide: 12 in the central region, 3 in Seoul, 3 in Busan, 3 in Gyeonggi, 3 in Gangwon, 3 in Jeonnam, 3 in Gyeongbuk, 3 in Gyeongnam, and 2 in Jeju. These rescue dogs were deployed 2,455 times to disaster sites from 2021 to 2023, discovering 146 rescue targets including 50 survivors.

Rescue dogs have excellent hearing 50 times that of humans and a sense of smell 10,000 times stronger than humans, enabling them to search areas difficult for rescue workers to enter and play an active role in various disaster sites. In February last year, 119 rescue dogs were also deployed to the earthquake site in T?rkiye, playing a major role in finding survivors and recovering missing persons. They were also deployed to search for missing persons in Yecheon, Gyeongbuk, due to heavy rain and landslides in July. Kim Hee-gyu, head of the Chungcheong·Gangwon 119 Special Rescue Team, added, "We regularly check the training environment of 119 rescue dogs in preparation for rising temperatures and strive to manage their condition."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.