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Less than 24 hours after the landslide, Piko (7) was shot down from a helicopter with his driver, Police Officer Kenneth Cortsen.
Police dog Piko was injured during a search of the avalanche area and was transported with blue lights to the vet on New Year’s Eve. Photo: Hans O. Torgersen
Piko searched the chaotic landslide area the night before New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, the dog was connected by line to the Corts, which were connected to the rescue helicopter cable.
– We were connected to the helicopter all the time. The dog checked in, came back, they got us up a bit, back and down again.
– If it had started to rage around you, would you have been raised immediately?
– Yes.
On Saturday, the dog was injured during a search of the landslide area.
– He passed through glass and was cut, says Cortsen.
Piko is not allowed to search for the injury and must spend the day in the car while dog trainer Kenneth Cortsen works inside the command center. Therefore, the joy was great when the press corps visited Piko. Photo: Hans O. Torgersen
Piko bled profusely from the wound. He received first aid from ambulance teams that are part of the USAR team (USAR is an abbreviation for urban search and rescue).
– I took Piko with blue lights to the vet in Oslo. He is doing well now, it looks like he is recovering with no lasting injuries.
Easier to move in the landslide area
Cortsen, who works as a section chief in the Oslo Police Dog Service, is one of the police officers who, together with his dog, is authorized to work with USAR teams in the Oslo Fire and Rescue Service .
The catastrophe in Gjerdrum is without comparison the greatest work they have received in this field. Cortsen talks about the tough conditions in the landslide area, but now it’s somewhat easier to get around.
The dogs’ efforts have been absolutely crucial in finding seven of the ten missing.
– The findings that have been made are based on the markings of the dogs, so the USAR teams have continued to work. It’s a team effort, says Cortsen.
– like a river
Overnight on Wednesday, December 30, just before 4 p.m., the first of several landslides took place in Gjerdrum. More and more houses disappeared. Some of them lay 400 meters in the landslides.
– When we talk about landslides and masses, as has been the case here, we have not talked about dry mass at all. It is more or less a huge river or waterfall. It’s so extreme, says operations manager Morten Thoresen in the fire service.
Fire Service Task Leader Morten Thoresen. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB
During the first days, it was only possible to search from the air. There is now so much water from the landslide area that it has become possible to deploy many crews on the ground.
Thoresen says the wet masses have moved farther from the central landslide area and have accumulated over County Highway 120 and about 500 meters inland in a valley.
– Now it’s drier in the landslides and that’s what makes it possible to deploy land crews, he says.
