Hot Topics Firefighters, Police Officers Gather For Arson Investigation School In Post Falls

Nose to the ground, the golden-haired dog hunted for the scent, inhaling deeply with each step he took.

Letting out a snuffling sigh, he stopped in his tracks, sat down and pointed to the ground with his nose.

Briar the arson dog had found what he was smelling for - a single drop of gasoline.

It had been put there more than an hour before.

“Good boy,” praised Mary Maltby, as she handed Briar three dog kibbles. “Good boy.”

Maltby and Briar are arson investigators with the Montana State Fire Marshal’s office. Their demonstration Wednesday was part of a three-day arson investigation school in Post Falls this week.

About 70 firefighters and police investigators from Washington, Idaho and Montana attended the event, sponsored by the Idaho chapter of the International Association of Arson Investigators.

Officers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms taught the students how to identify different types of arsons, some of the reasons people start fires and how to tell the difference between an arson fire and others.

“It helps get people together to share ideas and experiences,” said Dan Ryan, Post Falls Fire Marshal.

The number of arson and suspicious fires reported in Idaho have more than doubled in the past five years.

However, so far this year, Kootenai County fire officials have reported fewer arson and suspicious fires than last year.

From January through September of 1994 there were 70 such fires in Kootenai County. During the same months this year there have only been 47, according to the state fire marshal’s office.

Revenge is the number one reason arson fires are started, Ryan said. Others arsonists start fires because it makes them feel powerful. “Some people just get a thrill watching a fire scene,” he said.

A “spree arsonist” is someone who lights several different fires in short time whereas a serial arsonist lights a fire and then has a cooling off period before lighting another. That cooling off period can be last an hour or a month, Ryan said.

An ATF agent told the class that investigators should look at what kind of inventory was in a business when it caught fire. A lack of products or old products in a store can indicate that it was arson.

They also learned to be cautious when labeling a fire an arson, because an accidental fire can sometimes leave the same burn patterns that an arson fire leaves, Ryan said.

Abbey, a black lab with the Post Falls Fire Department, is the only arson dog in Idaho. Because of her, “we can examine a fire scene a lot faster,” said Glenn Lauper, deputy state fire marshal in Coeur d’Alene.

Both she and Briar have been taught to find gasoline, kerosene and other fuels used to start blazes by identifying those smells with food.

Each day they must hunt spots of gasoline in order to get fed, Lauper said. They only eat when they smell the accelerant.

At the burned out hulk of a home, Maltby asks Briar “Do you want to go to work?” She then orders him to “seek.”

Alert with energy, he begins to salivate when he’s hot on the trail. When he finds the gas, he sits down and points to the spot with his nose until Maltby rewards him with kibble.

Briar and Abbey can smell gasoline odor 72 hours after it’s put there and can come within one inch of where it was placed.

But Maltby warned the other fire investigators, “Briar can’t go in and say, ‘Oh, this is an accidental fire’ or ‘Oh this is an arson.’ These dogs are just a tool.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo Graphic: Burning up

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