Waterloo’s four-legged firefighter has had a busy first year on the job.
Radar, a golden retriever/yellow lab mix, joined Waterloo Fire Rescue in May 2016, and by early this month he had been used at 30 fires and made 11 public appearances and demonstrations.
His job is to sniff through the charred devastation following a blaze to determine if there are traces of flammable fluids lingering. After Radar alerts on an area, the dog’s partner, City Fire Marshal Chris Ferguson, collects samples, seals up the scrapings and sends them off to the state crime lab for testing.