Tampa Fire Rescue search-and-rescue team dispatched to Haiti is back in Tampa

TAMPA — From deep in the rubble, the firefighter heard a voice. He said it sounded like an angel.

It turned out to be a 7-year-old Haitian girl, pulled from a collapsed Caribbean Supermarket with the help of a Tampa Fire Rescue canine search team.

Lt. Roger Picard said he still gets chills thinking about it.

"We saved a life," Picard said, his eyes watering. "There's no greater honor."

That was one of seven saved on the 10-day rescue mission. Picard and Lt. Brian Smithey were dispatched to Haiti within 24 hours of the earthquake that devastated the country Jan. 12, and they returned near midnight Monday.

They each took two rescue dogs: Picard took Party Girl and Cinder, and Smithey took Powder and Doak. They teamed up with the South Florida Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 2, a group of about 80 rescue specialists and medical professionals.

Mayor Pam Iorio and fire Chief Dennis Jones welcomed the lieutenants and their dogs back to town outside Tampa Fire Station No. 1 on Tuesday morning.

"You make me very proud to be mayor," Iorio said. "Roger and Brian represent the very best of Tampa Fire Rescue."

Picard and Smithey said they rescued two people from the debris of a Haitian school and five more from the country's largest supermarket. Each rescue took dozens of hours and multiple teams that took turns digging and resting.

The rescue dogs, certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, searched areas where people were thought to be trapped and pinpointed their likely locations.

The dogs have been on several rescue missions before this one, including Ground Zero after Sept. 11 and the sites of several Gulf Coast hurricanes.

In Haiti, the dogs helped locate victims ranging from 7 years old to 50. One needed an amputation immediately. Others walked away thirsty but unscathed.

The firefighters said they came back feeling fulfilled, but with heavy hearts.

"It's devastating. It's a war zone," Smithey said. "They prepared us — told us what it was like and showed us pictures. But it's not at all what you expect. It's much worse."

"There may have been more we could have saved," Picard said.

Still, when they think about the Haitian people chanting "USA" in the street and the voices of the people they saved, they tear up.

"You're put on this planet for a reason," Picard said. "Sometimes you just don't know what it is until it happens."