вЂњIf you visit a Cowboys, Rangers, or Wings game in Arlington, you will surely see them there,вЂќ he says.ДЄrlingtonвЂ™s firefighters went from вЂњhand-drawn horse carts and chemical wagons straight to automotive fireВ apparatus, skipping the horse-drawn era,вЂќ Tyler says.ДЄlthough the city has no history of utilizing Dalmatians at its fire stations, Tyler found a 1960s-era photo of two firemen standing outside the bay door of station No. вЂњHe searches for live victims trapped or buried, cutting the location time down to minutes,вЂќ she says.ДЄrlington keeps nine highly trained explosive ordinance detection K-9s on hand that protect millions of citizens and visitors, Tyler says, but the dogs stay with the bomb squad unit rather than at fire stations. Pitman, who has been with the Dallas Fire Department for 21 years, says the two are constantly together and must be ready when called. Texas Task Force Two has five other dogs including Sonic, a 10-year-old, black Labrador retriever rescued from a shelter in Las Vegas who also helped out in Canton. вЂњBilly can go because of his job,вЂќ she says. And thatвЂ™s partly because of policy and liability issues. While stray dogs may occasionally wander into fire stations, Krafft says things are not like they used to be when animals sometimes lived at the firehouses. Part of that is the bond вЂ¦ you have to have control of the dog, and they have to trust you.вЂќ He goes to the fire station with me and goes home with me. вЂњThey get strays or donated dogs and train them and then pair them to firefighters around the country at no cost to the fire department,вЂќ Krafft says. Krafft says he was chosen partly because of his high drive for toy search, which can be transformed into rescue skills.

The dog, a stray from North Dakota, was originally accepted into a National Disaster Search Dog Foundation program. She and Billy were paired three years ago, and their most recent mission was in Canton after April's tornadoes. She describes the dog as a playful, 5-year-old mix of Labrador, border collie and Australian shepherd. Patti Krafft, who has been a Dallas firefighter for nearly 30 years, handles Billy, a live-find dog from Texas Task Force Two. Sparkie lived at the Central Fire Station and each dog that came after her was always renamed Sparkie. Sparkie was a gift to Frisco's fire department from Box Ranch in the late '80s, following a fire that destroyed the Box family home. вЂњThey were also comforting to the horses and kept them calm on the scene.вЂќДЄlthough Dallas fire stations no longer have official pet mascots, Dallas Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Jason Evans says there are some brave canines that help out at times. вЂњThe dogs were useful in alerting people that the fire engine was coming,вЂќ he says. David Tyler of theВ Arlington Fire Department. The tradition goes back to the days of horse-drawn fire engines, accordingВ to Lt. Some things just naturally go together, and for more than a century, dogs and fire stations were two of those things.

Cant hit fire dogs