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By Leslie Kim
Imagine this: You’re a career fireperson, your performance and credentials are impecable, and suddenly your chief assigns you a partner who weighs in at 100 pounds and drools all over your truck. What do you do?
Here’s Margie Yarbrough to tell you.
JCFR: Tell us about Sam. How old is he and where was he trained?
MY: He’s a five year old AKC registered black lab and he was trained in Redwood City, California by Whitmer-Tyson, a private trainer who has extensive experience in training police patrol dogs, bomb dogs and drug detection dogs. Nobody in California had ever trained an accelerant dog before. We chose this trainer to find and train our two dogs because of their track record and because of the kinds of dogs they were producing.
JCFR: What criteria do they employ to select a dog for training?
MY: They use labradors because they are bred for retrieving; they’re hunting dogs by nature. Sam’s breeding and nature is for a bird dog. The trainer uses the instinct of the wanting to go out and retrieve the prey for the master. For Sam, the accelerant is the prey – he will find the prey, show me where it is and be rewarded with play. In choosing the dogs to train, they look for one who likes to play. When they auditioned Sam, they threw the ball and he ran after it. When they hid the ball, he actively looked for it so that he could play.
JCFR: What’s the difference between an “active” alert and a “passive” alert dog?
MY: It’s how they tell their handler that they’ve located an accelerant. The passive alert dog sits, kind of like a pointer would point, while the active alert dog becomes very excited, scratching and pawing at the scent.
JCFR: Wouldn’t a passive dog be less apt to mess up any evidence?
MY: Yes, but if you talk to any handler, he’ll say that the best kind of dog to have is his kind of dog. The problem with a passive alert dog is that they are more likely to give a false alert – he may be just sitting down to rest. So a lot of it depends on the handler being able to read what he is doing. I can tell when Sam is sitting just to see if I am going to be dumb enough to give him his toy. He’s got a whole different body language that he goes through when he’s actually on a scent. It’s my job to read him; where he points with his nose. He gives me a lot of signals, but basically he just wants to find the scent and sit. Sometimes I’ll say, “Is it there? Show me where it is” and then he’ll put his nose on it. During the time we have worked together, we have learned to communicate this way.
JCFR: How many accelerants does he know?
MY: Thirteen, depending upon how you count them. If you talk to some trainers, they will state, “Our dogs can find 32 different accelerants” but when you look at it, it’s gasoline in its raw state and in its burn state, etc. We only train our dogs in the common things that we think an arsonist might use … gasoline and paint thinner are common. Jet fuel is not a common accelerant, so we don’t train our dogs on it. Your average arsonists are not going to 7-11 to buy some jet fuel to start a fire.
JCFR: What is the training process to get Sam to understand, for instance, what stove alcohol is?
MY: They introduce him to the smell of the actual accelerant. When they started training Sam, they began with gasoline because it is the easiest and the most widely used by arsonists. After he learned to recognize the odor, they went on to others.
JCFR: Is he better at one particular accelerant than another?
MY: Yes, because what he’s looking for is the odor, the vapors. The liquid doesn’t smell. There are three ranges of accelerants; light, medium and heavy distillates. They all produce vapors of various concentrations and weights. For example, diesel has a heavy vapor, whereas acetone has a very light vapor. So it’s easier for Sam to find gasoline, because it’s in the medium range, because the vapors don’t evaporate as quickly. Acetone is the most difficult because it evaporates so fast and he’s got to get in there real quick to go find it. It’s also easily diluted by water. I do most of my ongoing training with things other than gasoline because I know Sam can find that. Even the firemen can find gasoline.
JCFR: At what juncture do you take Sam into the fire scene?
Are the embers still hot?
MY: After the fire has been totally extinguished. Whether or not I take him in is determined by the safety of the structure. I always go in first.
JCFR: Are there any instances where you have to be on the scene right away?
MY: I’ve never come across one. Tomorrow is usually as good as tonight. Speed matters most in a fatality fire.
JCFR: Why is that?
MY: In order to make the corpus of arson, your investigation runs backwards from any other crime. You must prove what it was as much as you prove what it was not. You have to eliminate what didn’t happen. When you get into court, the defense attorney will come up with other possibilities, like, “Did her clothes just catch on fire.” So, if you have documentation that you found the presence of an accelerant, and verified that with lab tests, then that’s a pretty good case. Because of this, we like to investigate fatality scenes as soon as possible after the fire.
JCFR: How has Sam performed on fatality cases?
MY: We did one in Arcadia that was a really bizarre case. A woman died in the fire, had severe smoke inhalation. There was hardly any fire damage, just the cabinets, but the entire left side of her body was burned away. The dogs act differently where there’s a fatality on a fire scene.
JCFR: Why is that?
MY: I don’t know, must be the body fluids. They just get kind of spooky. We searched her clothes and Sam did not alert. She had been cooking or lighting a cigarette on the stove and we had information that she and her husband had been drinking very heavily. The investigation revealed that she had caught on fire and then fallen into the corner in such a way as to concentrate the fire. Sam was there to eliminate the possibility that something had been thrown on her.
JCFR: What happens if there’s been a dog or cat on the scene?
MY: Sam is so focused on the accelerant, that he does not become distracted by another animal smell. On a fire scene we went to last summer, there was a cat that had died in the fire and they wondered if that would affect Sam. I thought it might, so they removed the cat before we went in. At one point, Sam was trying to get behind the couch so I asked the fireman to turn it over. There was a dead kitten behind it, but Sam was on the scent and just went right past it. He knew that he was going to find an accelerant and he was so focused that he totally ignored the carcass of that kitten. He gets so narrow-minded.
JCFR: Does weather affect his ability? Can he perform as well in snow or in heat?
MY: You’re asking all of the right questions. It’s funny because all of these weird things have happened during the past year. We responded to a fire in Lebec, on the way up to Bakersfield in the Kern County Grapevine area. It was during Christmas vacation time and raining like crazy. I arrived at the fire scene at about 6 a.m. and there had been heavy snow throughout the night. It was a mobile home fire and the dwelling was burnt totally to the ground, with nothing left but the outline of the mobile home. Sam and I were there to look for accelerants because of the extent of the damage. Within 15 minutes it started snowing again and the total accumulation when we finished was 18 inches. Sam was still able to alert. He found, underneath all of the stuff, evidence of accelerant. The only problem was that I would not let him to into the debris area because it was snow-covered and I couldn’t see what he was walking on and I knew the place would be full of roofing nails and other things he could injure himself on. So he would alert on the outside, but he really wanted to get into the inside of the coach. So we really could not pinpoint where his alerts were on the inside, only on the outside.
JCFR: Because of the total destruction, couldn’t the arson investigator be the one to testify that an accelerant would have had to have been used?
MY: This was unique because the walls were made out of drywall and the destruction was so complete. Sam was just the icing on the cake, so to speak.
JCFR: How is he in rain?
MY: Vapors can rise when there is rain, but he still finds the accelerant. We worked a Westminster fire scene where it was raining the whole time he was searching the scene and it didn’t phase him at all. It does make it slightly more difficult to get to exactly where the accelerant is at because the rain will make the vapors move around.
JCFR: Tell us about Sam’s first arrest.
MY: That’s one of my favorite stories. The very first fire that Sam and Bugs, the Northern California dog, did was right after they had graduated from their training academy. There was a big fire in Oakland and both dogs had been sent. The investigators knew that there had been gasoline on the fire, but they wanted to see if the dogs could really find it. There was so much gas used that we had to continually bring the dogs out and let them clear their noses. Every time they came out, they would sit there and look around. They’re so nosy, they have to look at everything. Every time Sam would look over his shoulder, this guy was in his line of vision, part of a crowd of curious onlookers watching the action. After about four or five times of Sam coming out of the building, sitting down in this same spot and looking over his shoulder, always in the direction of where the guy was standing, the guy yells out, “OK, I did it. I confess. That dog KNOWS I did it, so I might as well tell you.” Turns out that he was really convinced that Sam knew his secret, so he confessed. We thought it was pretty impressive that Sam collared his first arsonist within hours of graduation.
JCFR: Have there been other successes?
MY: Oh, many! There was a case in LaVerne where the Chamber of Commerce building caught on fire. A witness was walking by and saw the fire start and somebody running away. He chased the person, flagged down an off-duty police officer who then continued the chase all the way to Pomona. He was throwing stuff out of his car and everything. They thought that it had to be an accelerant because of the extensive damage. So they called me and Sam in and we arrived on the fire scene about three hours after the suspect was arrested. The investigator was pretty new and asked if it would be alright to videotape Sam in action so he could show the chief. I told him to go ahead, that it would become part of the evidence and help their case. So Sam alerted in the corner where the suspect had broken the window. Then the sergeant came over and asked if Sam could search the guy’s clothes. I didn’t want to Sam to search the clothes while the man was wearing them because it might be an off day, they might have been freshly laundered, or any one of a number of things could get in the way. I didn’t want the suspect to be able to later claim “I couldn’t be guilty because that dog didn’t alert.” So we went over to the police station, where they took his clothing out of a locker into the room. I took Sam into the outside room, put his collar on him, didn’t even give him a command – having his collar put on is a signal that he’s going to work – and he took off for that room. He went straight for the box and gave an alert. The sergeant said, “That’s where the clothes are” and I said, “Sam, are you sure? Where is it? Search!” and he picked up a sock, threw it up into the air and flipped it up.
JCFR: Had the man spilled it on his clothes?
MY: There was no actual liquid on it. I think that the vapors got trapped when he rolled up the sock as he took it off. So we took the sock out in the parking lot and hid it all sorts of places and he found it every time. We videotaped all these searches, and sent the clothes and samples from the fire scene into the lab. The fire scene samples came back positive for gasoline but the clothing samples came back no trace. So we testified and they wanted to include the videotape. We knew that there shouldn’t have been gasoline in that office, the witness was a minister and the videotape of Sam alerting convinced the jury and they convicted him.
JCFR: What were the first sniffing dogs?
MY: Drug dogs. And I think they thought, if a dog can find drugs, what else can they find? It’s a little more difficult with an accelerant dog. With a drug or bomb dog, when they alert, you can confirm it on the spot. With these dogs, though, you can’t confirm until you send it to a laboratory. So you have to have a lot more credibility in your training program and a lot of confidence in the dog. But, even if the dog alerts on a fire, that doesn’t mean it’s arson. I did a case in Irvine where he kept alerting because we were in a garage and they had a lawn mower in the garage. You’re going to find accelerants in every building. You have to be able to eliminate them. We are very careful to refer to our dogs as “accelerant detection dogs” rather than “arson dogs.” They can’t detect arson. Arson is a crime that only a prosecutor can prove.
JCFR: Do you use Sam on suspicious automobile fires? And, if so, with gasoline in the tank, how does that affect him?
MY: Sam is trained to do vehicle searches. Usually, the arsonist will pour gas on the inside of the car. So, if he alerts on the inside of the car, that’s unusual. It’s not common – an added clue.
JCFR: What if the arsonist mixed a quart of gasoline with a quart of concentrated garlic?
MY: I think Sam could still pull it up. About a year after we got the dogs, somebody up in Northern California started getting wise to us, and started mixing their accelerant with ammonia. But our trainer ran a test and the dogs found it every time.
JCFR: It appears that the investigators have a great deal of faith in Sam’s nose.
MY: Yes, they do. Sam and I both belong to the Orange County Arson Investigators Association. Both of us attend the meetings, so Sam is very well known in the investigation community. They call on him a great deal, especially now that he’s certified.
JCFR: Are there programs that allow insurance companies to sponsor dogs?
MY: Yes.
JCFR: Would sponsoring a dog afford them any special privileges to use the dog?
MY: ABC Insurance Company cannot call me in to investigate one of their fires. Our dogs, meaning the state dogs, are only available to law enforcement. So any police, sheriff or fire department can call any time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for these two dogs. We will not respond to any other requests. They make these requests if they suspect use of an accelerant.
JCFR: What if the fire report does not point toward use of accelerant, but the insurance adjuster or investigator feels there was one? Can they call you in?
MY: No. The only way to handle it would be for the company person to contact the police or fire department, convince them to the extent that they revise their report, and have the authorities then request Sam. State dogs only respond to requests from enforcement agencies.
JCFR: Do you think private sector investigators are more prone to suspect everything?
MY: It’s important to realize that if the fire scene has been released, and it has been unsecured, there is nothing to say that somebody didn’t come in two days later and pour gasoline around. So we respond to law enforcement, while the scene is still technically secured. Even if it’s a month later, if they use our evidence, it must be a secured scene for our evidence to be any good. Otherwise, you just kind of go through an exercise.
JCFR: How is Sam with firemen?
MY: He loves them! He can tell by the way the phone rings that it’s for him. He just changes into this maniac dog, he knows we’re going to go. Perhaps it’s when I put on my work pants. In the car, he lays down until we get close to the fire – then he just goes nuts. Apparently he smells the fire. He can tell from the fire engines and the smoke and the smell that this is a fire scene and we’re going to play.
JCFR: Can Sam work at night, in the dark?
MY: I try not to take him out at night because it’s more difficult to see what we are doing – and one of my primary responsibilities is in insuring Sam’s safety. Plus, if he sits to give an alert, and it’s dark, with no electricity, it’s difficult to see a solid black dog. Also, when it’s dark, I cannot see the signals he gives me with his body language. I try to time it so that we can arrive on the scene at daybreak. I also make it a point to ask what the lighting conditions are. If we do get there and it’s too dark to work, we just wait around until we can be most effective.
JCFR: What special training do you have that qualified you to get Sam assigned to you?
MY: Basically, Sam was the one who picked me. I have investigative background and I live centrally in the Southern California territory so it was easy for them to transfer him and have him readily accessible to everyone. I started out in the Santa Ana fire department where I was a fire prevention specialist.
JCFR: Kind of like a loss control person?
MY: Yes, a fire inspector. I did annual inspections and things like that. Then I went to Orange and was an inspector there, but I also became a causes and origins investigator. This is different than an arson investigator. A causes and origins investigator determines what caused the fire. If I determined that it was a criminally started fire, then I would involve the arson investigator. So I responded with the engine companies. If they couldn’t tell when they got there what caused it, for example someone cooking and the grease caught on fire, then I was called. I worked for Orange for seven years. Then I went to the state and my classification is Deputy Fire Marshal, which is all the salaried positions under the State Fire Marshal. I have geographic responsibilities, but because I had training in investigations, it gave me an edge on getting Sam.
JCFR: How many others asked for him?
MY: I’m not sure. I heard it was 32.
JCFR: Sam is a big responsibility, isn’t he?
MY: Yes. I really put a lot of time and effort into my relationship with him. It’s not just a 40-hour job, because 52 weeks out of the year, I have this dog. On Christmas morning, when I’d like nothing better than to sleep in, there’s Sam, up at 5 a.m.
JCFR: What’s this dog’s lifespan?
MY: We think their working span is about ten years. But nobody’s run them out until they don’t work anymore. Sam is about five years old, so he’s approximately halfway through his working career.
JCFR: Do they lose olfactory sense with age?
MY: We don’t think so – but it’s a new program. We started in 1990. Connecticut started prior to that – several years earlier with “Maddie” and she’s now retired. That’s what prompted us to get the dogs. Jim McMullen went out there, saw their program, was impressed by it, and was then responsible for starting the program in California. It took a long time to convince personnel that these were not people, but equipment, because we did not have two vacancies.
JCFR: Is Sam insured?
MY: Sam’s insurance is mainly my responsibility for his safety. The burden of that lies on me, to make sure that nothing happens to him. And, he’s a law enforcement animal so he has protection under the penal code. And if you try to hurt him, you are subject to the same penalties as if you try to hurt me. I’m authorized to take whatever force I need to protect him, up to and including deadly force, because he is my partner.
JCFR: Do you and Sam have a special bond?
MY: Yes. Definitely yes. Sam has absolute faith in anything I tell him to do. On a fire, if I tell him to climb a ladder, he’ll do it. He’ll look at me first, as if to say, “Are you sure you want me to do this?” and then he’ll go ahead and do it. That’s a relationship developed over a couple of years. He knows that I won’t ask him to do anything where I won’t go along with him. He will not go back down the ladder – he can’t climb backwards. He’ll actually go anyplace, on to any surface, that I tell him. He’s got enough faith.
JCFR: Of all the things you’ve done, the investigation work, the cause and origin, and now Sam – is this your favorite aspect of fire fighting?
MY: This is the best. I try to not turn down any calls for Sam for two reasons. Number one, because Sam likes to do it and number two, because if the fire department calls for him, they NEED him and I try to provide that service.
JCFR: Now, this is a highly personal question? Does Sam have a girlfriend?
MY: No, he’s not involved with anybody. But if anyone out there reading this knows of a cute lady labrador who’s interested in a meaningful relationship, please let us know.
SAM: Woof, WOOF!
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