WASHINGTON, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) – The Washington Fire Department is welcoming a new employee to its team, but this four-legged friend isn’t your typical firefighter.
“She’s been pretty well potty trained actually, she’s been able to do some basic obedience training, we’ve got her on a leash walking around, I’m starting to get drop, aka sit,” Adam Grimes, WFD firefighter said.
That’s probably not something you would usually hear about a new co-worker.
But it is if your new co-worker is a dog.
“So Halli, her main thing is going to be within our fire prevention program. So we have a fire prevention program where we go to local elementary schools and we basically teach them fire safety and ways to prevent fires,” Grimes said.
The fire department hired Halli about a week ago after tossing around the idea of getting a station dog.
Halli is a four-month-old Dalmatian puppy and will be a full-time station dog.
Grimes said someone on each shift is the designated “dog watcher”.
“Halli is short for Halligan, which is a tool on our fire truck that we use on the daily. We wanted a name that was fire department related but also cute and a good-suited name for a female dog,” Grimes said.
Halli is catching on to her new duties pretty quickly and will play a significant role in the department.
“What we’re going to do with her is instead of sit, lay down, and roll over, she’s going to do stop, drop and roll. So it’s kind of in the safety aspect of that,” Grimes said.
Instead of a paycheck every week, Halli prefers her compensation in the form of goldfish.
Halli will be out on the job and at community events after she gets all of her shots.
You can follow Halli’s journey on the Washington Firefighters Local 495 Facebook page by clicking here.
