LOVELAND - Arson dogs from as far away as Hawaii and British Columbia and as near as Longmont are all taking the same test. Once a year, the arson dogs are re-certified by the Maine Criminal Justice Academy.
"Re-certification is critical with the arson dog program because when these handlers and K-9s go into court to testify, if they've detected an accelerant at a fire scene, the question is what is their training, what is their certification," Heather Paul, a spokesperson with State Farm Insurance, said.
State Farm sponsors the training and testing program.
Insurance fraud costs the insurance industry and customers about $30 billion a year according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
"We go to an average of 50 to 100 fires a year," Mike Monzo, a Longmont Fire Department investigator, said.
Monzo and his arson dog, Shadow, have worked together for nine years. He says an arson dog can locate evidence at an arson crime scene faster than mechanical devices.
"Shadow can do a quick search in there in about 10 minutes or so, so he saves lots of man hours and actually finds more evidence than they would have with that mechanical detection," Monzo said.
The re-certification testing involves the dog and handler working their way through a series of cinder blocks with canisters in them. One of the canisters contains an accelerant. To pass the test, the arson dog must alert to the correct canister.
The arson dogs provide investigators with a probable ignition point for fires.
"They are extremely valuable tools for the tool box. Instead of taking three or four samples where I think maybe the fire started, my dog, Ellie, is going to narrow that down to one. If she gives me a strong enough alert and she'll tell me, 'Dad it is right here,'" Len Archer, an arson investigator with the Richmond Virginia Fire Department, said.
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