VIDEO: Escanaba Township Fire is getting a new team member to assist in arson investigations. Jet, the newest canine member of Escanaba Township Fire, will help firefighters investigate suspected arsons. Fire Chief Zachary Denome says Jet will be trained to identify common accelerants with his nose.
โYou can take Jet and run him through the structure, the car, whatever burnt and see if he can hit on anything,โ Denome said. โIf he gets a hit, then you can take that item or per se piece of clothing or furniture and send that out to see what kind of accelerant was used.โ
D&D Canine Dynamics President and Trainer Sammi Grzybowski says Jet will be trained on six different accelerant odors. After five to six weeks of training, he will then undergo a certification process.
โFor arson detection it is a very similar process to any other imprinting of odors,โ Grzybowski said. โSo, initially we would start off imprinting the dog on odors and then from there we go into more scenario-based training of it.โ Denome says the department is still looking for roughly $5,500 to put Jet through training.
