New York: A black Labrador who became a canine hero after burrowing through white-hot, smoking debris in search of survivors at the World Trade Center site after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks has died after a battle with cancer.

Owner Mary Flood had Jake put to sleep on Wednesday after a last stroll through the fields and a dip in the creek near their home in Oakley, Utah. He was in too much pain at the end, shaking with a 105-degree-Fahrenheit (40-degree-Celsius) fever as he lay on the lawn.

No one can say whether the dog would have gotten sick if he had not been exposed to the smoky air at ground zero, but cancer in dogs Jake's age - he was 12 - is quite common.

Medical study

The results of an autopsy on Jake's cancer-riddled body will be part of a University of Pennsylvania medical study of September 11 search-and-rescue dogs.

Flood had adopted Jake as a 10-month-old disabled puppy - abandoned on a street with a broken leg and a dislocated hip.

"But against all odds he became a world-class rescue dog," said Flood, a member of Utah Task Force 1, one of eight federal search-and-rescue teams that desperately looked for human remains at ground zero.

After Hurricane Katrina, Flood and Jake drove 30 hours from Utah to Mississippi, where they searched through the rubble of flooded homes in search of survivors.