Kansas City, KS - Zoom is a two and a half year old yellow lab. He's been donated to the fire department through Ground Zero Training, a non profit group out of Oklahoma.
He's specially trained as a disaster dog and Mike Searcy, his K-9 handler with the KCK Fire Department, says his job is to find lost or trapped live human victims.
"Zoom locates their scent and narrows it to a small area, and then he'll give a continuous barking alert until I arrive there to reward him,” says Searcy.
He fits in well at home and at the station, explains Searcy. "He's very calm, relaxed, and laid-back, but he has the ability to flip the switch when it's time to get to work. He will work until he can't anymore."
Zoom may have a big job, but when he's home, he can play a mean game of hide and seek with Searcy's five year old son.
He's the first of his kind in the Metro, but he's part of several trained K-9s in Kansas and Missouri that can be utilized in case of a large scale disaster.