Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009

Belleville arson dog puts her nose to work to smell out crimes in metro-east

Onyx is a Black English Labrador Retriever

There's a new arson dog in town and she's eager to put her nose to work.

Onyx, a two-year-old Black English Labrador Retriever, is one of the two newest arson sniffing dogs in the state working for the Illinois Office of the State Fire Marshal's Arson Investigation Division.

Onyx and her handler, Greg Vespa, live in Belleville and will serve southwestern Illinois to help sniff out possible arson crimes. The team are also members of the ATF National Response Team for the Midwest region and can be called upon if required.

Every day, Vespa and Onyx practice their skills to keep her nose sharp to recognize 31 different types of ignitable liquids. Vespa uses several different methods to keep Onyx's nose sharp, and on Friday, the pair were at the Swansea Fire Department to train.

Vespa set up 20 gallon cans in a rough circle. Inside each was a smaller can containing either a piece of fabric that had a couple of drops of accelerant placed on it and ignited, or, a "distracter." Distracters can be anything from a few bits of kibble to burnt wood, plastic, carpet, furniture foam, siding and anything else she may come across in a burnt structure, Vespa said.

Onyx knew she was going to work and was eager to get the job done, wagging her tail and wiggling in excitement. She went from can to can, pushing her nose inside, sniffing and then either moving on or sniffing inside the can again. If she paused at a can containing the smell of an accelerant, Vespa encouraged her to move to the next.

When Onyx refused, and sat in front of the smell she recognized, she was rewarded with a "good girl!" and a handful of kibble. Her daily meals are earned during her training sessions.

Some exercises involved planting a cotton swab dipped in accelerant in an open field and asking the dog to find it or placing a small amount in one of several small holes on a wooden board, setting it on fire and asking the dog to pinpoint the hole the accelerant was in.

"It's a very unique, stringent process that we use," Vespa said.

The arson dog spent 12-weeks at the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Accelerant and Explosive Detection K-9 Training Branch in Virginia. The first six weeks of her training were spent imprinting her to 31 different accelerants, such as gasoline, paint thinner, charcoal lighter fluid, diesel and kerosene. Trainers taught her to recognize those odors and be rewarded for recognizing the odors.

The second six weeks of training were spent with Vespa and Onyx learned to work together as an arson investigation team.

Since their return from training in Virginia, Vespa and Onyx have been called on to sniff out accelerants at six suspicious metro-east fires. Of those six fires, Onyx hit on accelerants at three of them, Vespa said, indicating possible arsons. Two were in the Camp Jackson neighborhood near Cahokia, one was in East St. Louis.

"Dogs are obviously not infallible," Vespa said. "They are a tool. We still have to have a lab confirm an ignitable liquid was used before we can put it in a report."

According to the state fire marshal's office, arson is the primary cause of property damage due to fire in the U.S., and the second leading cause of building fire deaths.

Because Onyx went through ATF training, she is considered a federal agent. The state's fire marshal's office is responsible for her veterinary care expenses, food expenses and costs associated for annual re-certification, Vespa said.

Donations from State Farm Insurance, the ATF and the state's Fire Marshal were used to bring Onyx to the metro-east. The second arson dog purchased and trained with the donated funds is Rusty, also a two-year-old Labrador. Rusty is partnered with Shane Arndt in Champaign County. The pair will serve arson investigations in central Illinois.

Onyx and Rusty bring the total number of specially trained arson dogs in the state to seven.