K9 Arson Team Series Part 1: Fire K9.org Conference

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Founded in 2009, FireK9.org is a nonprofit, public benefit, California corporation that supports and promotes the use of professional independent canine accelerant detection teams on an international level.

Canines are trained to detect many types of ignitable liquids including gasoline, diesel, charcoal lighter, lighter fluid, paint thinner, turpentine, kerosene, jet fuel, lantern fuel, lamp oil and mineral spirits.

Members of FireK9.org assist with fighting crime and reducing the threat of arson by offering fire prevention education programs in communities, canine accelerant detection demonstrations and holding arson awareness discussions.

Member Benefits Include:
•    K9 Team Promotion & Referrals   
•    Quarterly Trainings   
•    Educational Seminars   
•    Membership Directory   
•    Canine Health Updates   
•    Quarterly Newsletter   
•    Member Discounts   
•    Reference Archives   
•    Professional Standards and Proficiency Testing

Fire K9 teams save investigators time and money by being able to:
•    Detect ignitable liquids in structures, wildland, vehicle, and vessel fires;   
•    Save time searching multiple areas and layers of debris for evidence;   
•    Reduce the number of samples sent to the lab for testing;   
•    Find ignitable liquids on people and clothing and access tight or hard to search areas;   
•    Find traces of ignitable liquids not detected by mechanical hydrocarbon detectors.

Troy Morrison, President of FireK9.Org, explained, "We wanted to have a canine program and group organization for private handlers, but we didn't want to exclude the public handlers. We wanted them to be allowed to come and train with us as well because we are so far and few between, and we wanted to keep the travel within California so that it would be more economically feasible for more people in California to come to this training. We are encouraging people from other states."

October 7-9, 2010 was the FireK9.org Annual Detection Conference held at Humphreys Half Moon Inn & Suites in San Diego, California. There are currently 12 teams in California and 400 in the nation. A total of 8 teams attended the 2010 conference.

Seminars held for detection K9 handlers included:

•    IRS Deduction for the K9 Handlers   
Mary Kate Anderson - CPA   
•    Evidence: From the Scene to the Lab   
Dr. John D. DeHaan - CFI, CFEI - Fire-Ex Forensics   
•    What to Say (and not say) to the Media   
Nick Schuler - Battalion Chief Public Affairs - CAL FIRE   
•    K9 First Aid for the Working Dog   
Dr. Paul McNamara DVM, DACVS

Professional K9 Owner with Detection Services and 2010 Conference attendee, Mark Campbell, stated, "I've been to several different types of seminars with canines in training and this is number one."

"I can't tell you how excited we were when we finally found Troy Morrison who got us started in the conference and the certification and has guided us through this just beautifully. The support from everybody in this group is absolutely amazing. There is no competition. Everybody wants every team to win and to certify," expressed another attendee, Eileen Porter, from Goldendale, Washington.

Morrison claimed that the goal of FireK9.org is to "encourage canine health, handler training, make sure that we certify everybody and bring the level of expertise within the handlers to a professional level, and then spread the word and add more members to be able to benefit from the classes and the education."

According to Troy Morrison, the California State Fire Marshal's Office adopted canine standards for California in 2009. Therefore, FireK9.Org composed their own standards that exceed the California standards. "The testing standards, in my opinion, are quite stringent, which is really good. Everything that we did in our testing and our training is what you're going to find in the real world. The last thing you wanna be is in court with this highly trained tool saying 'Oh geez, I never did that.'," remarked Campbell.

"We had a test facility, it was an abandoned warehouse. And believe it or not, they actually had rooms set up for SWAT operations, and so it worked really well. We were able to do our area searches inside of rooms, just to simulate inside of a house or a bedroom. We also had an area search. It was an open area to simulate if the bad guy uses something to pour gasoline or whatever, is running away from the scene and throws the article that has already been tainted with gasoline, might have latent prints on the cup. We just can kind of connect the dots, so that's one of the tests. We also did our pinpoint drill, our can drills for the mixed matrix,  and we did vehicle searches. We do exterior and interior vehicle searches. There are different compartments within a vehicle that is perfectly acceptable to use a detection canine to detect accelerants that should not be in that compartment," explained Morrison.

Troy Morrison expressed that President of Fire-Ex Forensics, John DeHaan, Ph.D., brings a huge amount of expertise to FireK9 members in the field of Fire Forensics. "You know, if we had to pay for his services at his normal rate, it would take me 10 years to raise the money, so it's very, very nice of him to take his time and come down and help us develop our testing procedures and also teach a class," added Morrison.

"I would encourage anybody that would be interested in becoming a handler. Latch on to somebody that is a handler. There is so much information that you need to learn. A good resource is FireK9.org," added Morrison.

The FireK9.org Annual Conference 2011 will take place September 7-10, 2011 in Napa, California.

For more information about FireK9.org, becoming a K9 handler, making a donation or FireK9 events, please visit http://www.FireK9.org/


Author:Ann Zevely - Video, Renee Marquart - Text