Rescue dog handler Christina Lex with her area search dog Aruba and troop man Gerd Schmitz on duty in search of the missing Julia.
(Photo: OH)
There was great relief when the news came on Tuesday afternoon that the girl who had been missing in the Bavarian Forest had reappeared. Eight-year-old Julia got lost on a hike with her family on Sunday afternoon not far from the Bavarian-Czech border and has been missing since then. More than 1,400 helpers combed the huge forest area in search of Julia since Sunday evening – including emergency services from the district: The rescue dog teams from Aschheim and Garching-Hochbrück were alerted on Monday evening and rushed to support the search. Andreas Bitzer was in charge of the rescue dog specialist unit of the Aschheim volunteer fire brigade.
SZ: Mr. Bitzer, what did you think when you got the alarm shortly after half past eight on Monday evening to come to Waldkirchen?
Andreas Bitzer: We had already heard from the media and other units that the girl had disappeared, so we were in a sense already prepared for something to come. We packed up our things, went to the tool shed and then drove off with ten emergency services and eight dogs – seven area search dogs and a mantrailer. The fact that we have two and a half hours to get there is of course something special. We have therefore prepared ourselves for a longer search so that the journey is also worthwhile.
Andreas Bitzer led the rescue dog squadron of the Aschheim fire brigade in the search for the missing Julia in the Bavarian Forest. Our picture shows him with his dog Archie, who is currently being trained.
(Photo: private)
How did the situation look to you when you arrived – in the middle of the night in a dense wooded area?
First of all, we went to the operations management team, who assigned us to our search area. A dog team always consists of a dog handler, a dog and a squad man or woman who take on all the organizational tasks – keeping an eye on the spark and the boundaries of the search area, for example. So the dog handlers can concentrate fully on their animals. The area search dogs run free without a leash, so you walk rather briskly. Our search area was quite large and included, among other things, the nearby ski slope. After the first search, we took a break and then searched a second area for each team, a total of around 700,000 square meters.
Was it unfamiliar for your dogs to be looking for someone in such a large forest area as the Bavarian Forest?
The dog doesn’t care whether we’re just in the small forest between Haar and Waldtrudering or in the Bavarian Forest – he doesn’t look at the map beforehand. He does what he should do, no matter for whom. For us humans, the effort was special in that it was about an eight-year-old who certainly did not disappear voluntarily. The motivation is of course very high.
Did you still see how Julia was found?
Yes. Shortly before we left for Aschheim on Tuesday, the news came that Julia was found and is alive. We all had a lump in our throats, that was an amazing feeling that all the effort was worth it. Our rescue dog handlers and helpers all work on a voluntary basis.