3 dogs give avalanche rescuers hope

Italian emergency crews pulled three wiggling, white sheepdog puppies out Monday from under tons of snow and rubble at an avalanche-struck hotel, lifting spirits even as the search for 15 people still missing dragged on six days after the disaster.

Firefighters located half a dozen bodies within a few hours on Tuesday, doubling the death toll. The first survivors of the deadly avalanche were discharged from the hospital. Questions intensified, however, into whether Italian authorities underestimated the risks facing the snowbound resort in the hours before the avalanche.

Five days after some 60,000 tons of snow, rocks and uprooted trees plowed into the Hotel Rigopiano in central Italy, rescue crews were still digging by hand or with shovels and chainsaws in hopes of finding more survivors. An excavator reached the site, northeast of Rome, to speed up the search.

The discovery of the three Abruzzo sheepdog puppies in the boiler room raised spirits, even as rescuers located a ninth body.

Jubilant emergency crews carried the pups out in their arms, with one firefighter burying his face in the fluffy white fur to give the dog a kiss. The puppies were born last month to the hotel's resident sheepdogs, Nuvola and Lupo, and were prominently featured on the hotel's Facebook page. Their parents had found their own way out after the Wednesday afternoon avalanche.

"They just started barking very softly," said Sonia Marini, a member of the Forestry Corps. "In fact, it was hard to find them right away because they were hidden. Then we heard this very tiny bark and we saw them from a little hole the firefighters had opened in the wall. Then we expanded the hole and we pulled them out."

Firefighter spokesman Luca Cari, however, stressed that the puppies were found in an isolated part of the hotel and didn't necessarily signal any new hope for finding human survivors.

"We're happy to have saved them, and these are important moments in a dramatic situation," he said. "But I don't think there's much correlation with finding other people."

Emergency crews have been hoping that the 20 missing people may have found air pockets under the debris, and that the snow would insulate them from the frigid temperatures. But some three days have passed since anyone has been pulled out alive from the hotel, and conditions at the site were deteriorating, with the heavy snow turning to ice.