Kingman the Fire Dog is lovable, but he’s so much more than just a cute face. The Huntington Beach Fire Department has been using Kingman, a 3-year-old Labrador retriever-husky mix, as a peer support dog since February. He is the life of the party in potentially difficult situations. Sometimes, just anything that can provide a smile can make all the difference to a first responder. “He’s there to comfort us in times of stress and trauma and overstimulation,” said Kingman’s handler, HBFD engineer Kane Johnson. “He’s there to kind of be that icebreaker, to make it OK to not be OK. Everyone’s all serious, and he’ll do a dog thing and everyone is laughing and cracking up. It eases that tension and trauma. It doesn’t avoid it, because you’re still going to feel it, but it just makes it so it’s OK and you can process.” Huntington Beach is the first fire department in Orange County to use a peer support dog, Johnson said, though more are likely to follow.