Comprehensive, professional and safe training of rescue dogs and their handlers, unique in Belgium
It is vitally important that rescue dogs can reach the scene of an emergency as soon as possible. Something Guy Storms and Benoit Robert unfortunately know all too well.
They lost their daughter Vicky and son Alexis respectively in a gas explosion in Liège in 2010. A total of 14 people lost their lives. The disaster prompted both parents to establish the Vicky & Alexis Foundation. They wanted to keep the memory of the young couple alive and, above all, increase the survival chances of victims in the future by getting rescue dogs to the scene within the shortest possible time. The ultimate goal is to maximise the use of well-trained dog rescue teams in police, fire and civil protection missions, both in Belgium and abroad.
The Rescue Center Vicky & Alexis was officially opened on 31 May 2024 at the 3,000 m² safety campus of the Limburg safety training school PLOT in Genk. In 10 training setups, each with an increasing level of difficulty, the dogs learn various skills: overcoming obstacles, level differences, climbing, detecting victims by smell and so on ... in and around car wrecks, in tunnel systems, in the rubble of a crumbling or collapsed building.
Guy and Benoit are proud of their project and are quite confident that trainers from all over Europe will find their way to it. We hope so too!