JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department announced sad news on Wednesday.
Jade, the department’s very first certified live find K-9, passed away.
Jade, who became part of JFRD in 2006, was on the search team for one of the department’s most high-profile search-and-rescue efforts: looking for survivors of the Berkman Plaza II garage collapse in 2007.
The garage for the then-new Berkman Plaza high rise collapsed when workers were pouring concrete on the sixth floor of the garage early in the morning on Dec. 6, 2007, killing 26-year-old Willie Edwards III and injuring 23 workers. Edwards was a father of two children.
An acrid, throat-burning stench filled the Sunday morning air near the fire-gutted, charred shell of an abandoned, historic downtown Jacksonville building destroyed by fire Saturday night.
Jacksonville firefighters doused hot spots overnight to prevent flare-ups as investigation ramped up into the cause of the three-alarm fire that destroyed the former Moulton & Kyle Funeral Home building and threatened neighboring businesses, including a convenience store with outdoor propane tanks at Union and Main streets.
No injuries were reported in the blaze that sent flames shooting hundreds of feet into the sky and blanketed downtown with thick, choking smoke.
The fire s cause and a damage estimate weren t available Sunday. However, Jacksonville historians say the 107-year-old building was priceless architecturally.