Local firefighter and his search dog deployed to hurricane-stricken Puerto Rico

Santa Barbara County Engineer and Paramedic Eric Gray and his search dog Riley have been deployed to Puerto Rico to help the hurricane-stricken island.

Gray and Riley are part of California Task Force 2, a unit sponsored by the Los Angeles County Fire Department consisting of 57 specialized personnel trained in urban search and rescue.

The task force not only brings specialized personnel to devastated areas but brings all necessary equipment to make live rescues from areas such as collapsed structures and confined spaces.

Riley, a purebred yellow Labrador Retriever, was presented to the Santa Barbara County Fire Department by the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation in Ojai. Riley is a live scent disaster dog whose job is assisting urban search and rescue teams with locating people still alive and trapped in rubble following a disaster.

Gray and Riley were paired in October 2009.

Previously, Gray and Riley were deployed to the terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011, and the 2015 Nepal earthquake.