G.E.R.C.C.M.A. Group of Canine Disaster Rescue Specialists – Arcón Method

Jaime Parejo, Javier Luque, Jair Pereira, David Cabrera and Pedro Luque. They are the five Andalusian firefighters who, on 7 August, packed their gear and their dogs and flew to Beirut without a second thought, hoping to find signs of life under the rubble left by the explosion that claimed the lives of more than 150 people. They spent three days of intense work there, stopping only to let the dogs rest. As members of the NGO Grupo de Especialistas en Rescate Canino en Catástrofes – Método Arcón (GERCCMA), they have extensive search and rescue experience behind them: Haiti, Mexico, Ecuador, Pakistan and Turkey are just some of the places where they have saved lives. 

This time they returned from the mission without rescuing anyone, but convinced that no mistakes had been made and that, wherever they had searched with their dogs, nobody was left alive under the rubble. Their method, the Arcón Method, which took Jaime Parejo 12 years to fully develop, is backed by several governments and by the United Nations, and has a higher detection and success rate than conventional canine rescue. 

They never lose hope and never give up on a mission. Corporal Javier Luque is clear about it: “The best moment is when a dog signals, locates and tells you that down there, under a completely silent mass of rubble, there is someone breathing, someone alive.”