- April 18, 2024
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Glory rolls over for tummy rubs at the arson dog recertification tests at the Flagler County rescue burn training building in Bunnell. Photo by Jacque Estes
A few arson detecting trained dogs wait their turn to be re-certified. Photo by Jacque Estes
Glory, wearing her badge. Photo by Jacque Estes
Detective Amelia Hitchcock and her arson dog Penzy go through a drill. Photo by Jacque Estes
Detective Amelia Hitchcock and her arson dog Penzy. This is the team assigned to Flagler County. Photo by Jacque Estes
Glory rolls on her back for a tummy rub as 37 additional Labradors wait impatiently to get to work at the Flagler County Rescue burn building.
The dogs are from throughout the U.S. and Canada, and are all highly trained arson canine officers that go to work when a fire is considered suspicious in nature. They are definitely not “man’s best friend” if you are an arsonist.
Glory and her partner, Detective Keith Lynn, have traveled from Wisconsin for her annual recertification. Glory was the top arson dog of the year in the United States last year, but she didn’t start out as an arson canine.
“She used to be an assistance dog for a girl who was in a wheelchair with MS,” Lynn said. “She had separation anxiety, and when the girl couldn’t be with her, Glory would tear things apart.”
Paul Gallagher refers to dogs like Glory as “exuberant,” and they are just the kind he wants in his arson training classes in Maine. Gallagher is the former head canine trainer for the Maine State Police, and now has a team that trains the dogs to the standards of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy.
One by one, the dogs climbed the open metal steps to the second floor of the burn training building to sniff out accelerants. Even though there were other dogs and people around, the dogs were focused, just like Gallagher and their trainers wanted.
“We make sure they can do what they said they can do,” Gallagher said. “If they don’t, they get a second chance, and if that doesn’t work we take them off the line.”
Training is intense for the dogs, and their trainers. Gallagher has been training law enforcement dogs since 1985; and for the State Farm Insurance program since 1993.
“The dogs come to the school for five weeks, and we have them for three months ahead of that,” Gallagher said. “We work them, and then we bring the handlers up.”
Gallagher said the dogs come from Labrador rescues, the Seeing Eye Foundation, or, as in Glory’s case, someone who couldn’t keep the dog.
“We want the high energy, exuberant dogs,” Gallagher said.
Penzy also meets that description. The 5 ½-year-old black Labrador danced around Detective Amelia Hitchcock’s legs, but when it came time to work; her nose hit the ground until she found the trace of accelerant she was searching for. Hitchcock and Penzy are the team most likely to respond if there is a suspicious fire in Flagler County.
“We are detectives for the State Bureau of Fire and Arson,” Hitchcock said. “We would respond to callouts from the police department, fire department, construction fires, vehicle fires, anything they are not able to determine the cause, and is suspicious in nature, including fatalities or serious bodily injury.”
The recertification was organized by the Flagler Fire Marshal's Office. Florida currently has seven active arson dog teams that were trained through the State Farm® Arson Dog program.
