History Making Arson Dog Memorialized

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The Rancho Cucamonga Fire District recently held a memorial service for Gator, an Accelerant Detection Canine that faithfully served the department from 1999 until his retirement in 2007.  The fourteen year old Labrador Retriever died on November 21, 2009 from natural causes.  In attendance at the memorial were firefighters, other arson dogs and their handlers, and community members.

Rancho Cucamonga Fire District's Fire Chief Mike Bell fondly remembered the arson detection dog saying, "Gator was just a very interesting dog, and just a great personality.  He was as intense as you can imagine in terms of his job."

Gator was the second of Susan De Antonio's three canine partner's during her 33 year career as a Fire Investigator and Inspector for the City of Rancho Cucamonga.  Susan's first dog was Newbie, a former guide dog who became certified in accelerant detection in 1994.  After 4 years together, Newbie and Susan began to look for Newbie's replacement.

De Antonio explains, "We introduced four Labradors and a German Shepherd, and Newbie selected Gator."  Gator was part of the Guide Dogs of America program, but his emotional personality was not well-suited for that job.  De Antonio admits that Gator was a handful and would not have been her first choice, but says that Newbie wisely made the best choice in identifying Gator.

Arson dogs are trained to detect even the smallest amounts of petroleum-based liquid accelerant. Interestingly, Gator never had any formal arson detection training.  A month before he was to enter a 240 hour course, the Academy Instructor who was to teach him passed away.

De Antonio recalls, " I was left with a green dog and an older dog, and decided to use the same philosophy that Guide Dogs uses.  They use the older dogs to train the younger dogs, and so Newbie trained Gator.  Gator shadowed him for a year at hot scenes, at fire scenes, and learned what to find and how to find it and problem solve.  And he was the first California canine to certify in New York state, the first California canine to certify with a very prestigious organization called the North American Police Work Dog Association."  Gator's highest honor was his induction into the California Veterinary Medical Association's "California Animal Hall of Fame", under their theme of "Honoring the Human/Animal Bond".

During their career together Susan De Antonio and Gator investigated approximately one hundred fires together in Rancho Cucamonga and neighboring communities.  One of the highlights of Gator's career came during the investigation of a $1.3 Million church fire in San Bernardino, California.  Twelve hours after the arson fire, Gator went before a police line-up and identified the arsonist who was later convicted of setting the fire by his scent, even after having had his clothing, socks and shoes removed.

Gator was also the first canine to demonstrate his skills in Superior Court as an expert witness in a case where the arsonist was convicted.  In addition to their investigative work, the pair educated thousands of school children over the years about fire safety.

Before Gator's retirement in 2007, he trained his replacement, Susan's third dog, Denali.  De Antonio and Denali retired together in the Summer of 2009.  Chief Bell said that with their retirement came the retirement of the city's Canine Arson Investigation Program.  For several years the Rancho Cucamonga Fire District provided mutual aid to surrounding fire departments and helped to train some of their arson investigation teams, and with De Antonio's retirement the Fire District will now rely on those departments for mutual aid.

The memorial service for Gator was well-attended, with many canine guests who knew Susan and Gator well from the annual pool parties that Susan would host for both working and retired arson dogs.  As a permanent memorial for Gator, a friend of the team, Joshua Wilson, created a memorial plaque which was unveiled at the service and which will be housed at the station which he served for so many years.



Author:Barbara Brooks - FDNNTV.com