UKFSSART
UK Fire Service Search & Rescue Teams


As regular vistors to the site will be aware, Buttons, now known as Minne, has joined the Leicestershire Fire Service.
We are really proud of her and are honoured to be associated with, and to give our utmost support, to the UK Fire Service Search & Rescue Teams.

Please visit the UKFSSART website:


All the team are so impressed with Minnie, that Chris Pritchard of Leicestershire UKFSSART has asked Wiccaweys to find two more dogs for training.

Minnie:
A dog who was rescued by humans is now training to be a dog who rescues humans.


Meet Minnie, and her Dad Keith - and big brother Max!

KEITH HAMPTON / MAX & MIN

Keith Hampton has served with Leicestershire Fire & Rescue service for 25 years and is watch manager on the brigades new Technical Rescue team. The Tech Rescue team is responsible for Heavy Rescue, USAR, Water Rescue and Rope Rescue and has potential for growth into other specialist areas.

Keith has been a member of the UKFSSART team in Leicester for 10 years, right from its inception and he is a team leader. In this role with UKFSSART he has been deployed to incident in both in this country and overseas. He is a water rescue instructor with RQ3, qualifying as an SRT instructor in 1994 and has been involved in the water rescue & safety scene for some 20 years through his involvement in white water canoeing. In this role he has traveled and taught white water safety and rescue programs around the world and extensively in the UK.

Keith was the first UK Fire Service USAR Dog handler and his dog Max is now 9 years old. Although Max is still working well and full of beans, Keith felt it time to bring on another USAR Dog, in preparation for Max’s eventual retirement.

Max is now 9 years old and is going well, as the older statesman of the pack he still enjoys donning the harness and getting out for the day . Minnie is a four months old Border Collie bitch and after much searching for the right dog, she now lives with Max, Keith and his family.

Minnie came from Wiccaweys Collie Rescue who had stepped in to help find Min a better life than the one she had started off with. Her early days were spent locked in the back of a transit van with little food and water and not much love. A series of people then stepped in to help her. Fortunately, Sarah from Wiccaweys spotted her potential as a high drive dog and rang Keith.

She has settled in well and Max and Min get on really well. He has never ran around so much in years and has some competition for the ball now. This period of socialization and settling in is great fun for everyone and Min is only TOO willing to speak for her toy. Indications don’t look they will a problem with her.
One issue at the moment: She still has to grow into her ears!!!!

MAX has been awarded the Gold Medal for devotion to duty.

(info snaffled from the UKFSSART website)