Santa Barbara County Fire mourns death of retired search dog hero
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. - The Santa Barbara County Fire Department sadly announced Monday that one of their long-serving Live Scent Search Dogs has passed away.
Search Dog Riley was born on Oct. 1, 2007, in Northern California. After two attempts at a normal home life, Riley found his place as a Live Scent Search Dog, trained by the Search Dog Foundation in Santa Paula.
County Fire said on Oct. 15, 2009, Riley finished his training and was paired up with Captain Eric Gray of the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
After seven months of more tireless training, the team passed their FEMA Certification on May 15, 2010, in Boston, MA.
The fire department said Eric and Riley had to continue training intensively each day to keep up the skills needed for a disaster search. And their training paid off, as the pair were assigned to several high profile deployments over their career together.
Their first disaster occurred on Aug. 24, 2010, when a semi-truck loaded with gravel launched off a road and into a Santa Barbara home.
County Fire said Riley searched tirelessly to make sure there were no victims left unaccounted for.
And Riley's work was not limited to the local area. His reputation soon brought him to Los Angeles County as part of the FEMA Task Force 2 where he and his partner Eric were deployed to Japan to search for victims in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and tsunami from March 2011.
On April 26, 2015, Captain Gray and Riley were again deployed oversees to help search for victims from the Nepal Earthquake. There, they worked for over a week searching for people throughout the rubble.
In 2017, the search team was flown to Puerto Rico to search for victims of Hurricane Maria.
The fire department said Riley's last high profile deployment was on Jan. 9, 2018, when he and Eric searched the devastating Montecito Mudflow aftermath.
After his retirement in September 2019, Riley spent his last two years with Captain Gray's family.
The SB County Fire Department extends its condolences and appreciation to not only Captain Gray but also the Search Dog Foundation for connecting Riley with Eric and the community.
