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NY Post
New York Post
19 Apr 2023


NextImg:FDNY deploys robot dog to search for survivors in NYC garage collapse

The FDNY deployed a robot dog into the rubble of the Lower Manhattan parking garage that collapsed Tuesday to look for survivors and assess the destruction that killed one person and injured five.

The mechanical pooch named Spot was used in place of human firefighters after the structural integrity of the nearly 100-year-old building at 57 Ann St. was deemed unsafe, the department said.

“Thank God we had the robotic dog that was able to go in the building. This is ideally what we talk about not sending a human being inside a building as unstable,” Mayor Eric Adams said at the scene.

The mechanical pooch named Spot was used in place of human firefighters after the structural integrity of the building was deemed unsafe.
Kyle Schnitzer/NY Post
Cars pile onto on another after a parking garage collapsed.
The parking garage collapsed just before 4:30 p.m. in Manhattan Tuesday.
REUTERS

A video taken by a person at the scene shows the $75,000 robo-canine walking towards a pile of building debris and falling on its side when it attempts to climb over a slab of broken concrete.

“Oh that didn’t work out for the dog so well,” a witness said following Spot’s tumble, according to the video posted to Twitter by user DaDa Rocks.

The 70-pound robot pup created by Boston Dynamics was purchased by the department a year ago specifically for search-and-rescue missions.

The electronic hound has since been given a fresh coat of paint with spots resembling the markings of a Dalmatian, the OG dog breed of firehouses.

The FDNY isn’t the only department to use mechanical dogs like Spot. The NYPD has assembled a robotic K-9 unit of three of the remote-controlled pooches called “Digidogs,” Adams announced last week.

“Digidog is out of the pound,” the mayor said at a press conference announcing the new technology. “Digidog is now part of the toolkit that we are using.”

The four-legged robots were initially unveiled by the former de Blasio administration but were scrapped after they were dragged by social media users who said they seemed like something out of a “Black Mirror” episode.

Cars fall into the collapsed top floor of a parking garage.
One person was killed and five were injured in the building collapse.
Jadess Speller
Robot dog inspect scene of parking garage collapse.
Witnesses described hearing a loud explosion at the time of the collapse.
Kyle Schnitzer/NY Post
Firefighters and police officer respond to the scene of a parking garage collapse in Manhattan.
The four-story building was built in 1925.
Kyle Schnitzer

The police robot dogs will be deployed in high-risk situations like hostage standoffs starting this summer.

With Post wires.