Capt. Eric Huntoon and Yahtzee (City of Des Moines photo)
Many law enforcement outlets across Iowa use specially-trained dogs to help solve crimes, but the Des Moines Fire Department is believed to be the first to deploy a full-time arson dog. A 30-year veteran of the department, Captain Eric Huntoon is being paired up with the well-educated rookie, an English Black Lab.
“Yahtzee is an ignitable liquid detection canine,” Huntoon says. “He was trained through Maine Specialty Schools. He was with them for about three months and then the last month I went out to New Hampshire and Maine and we spent the month training together.”
The addition of this canine is a game-changer for the fire investigation unit, according to Huntoon, as the dog’s highly-skilled at detecting small traces of chemicals that are used to start fires.
“Yahtzee will go into a fire scene post-fire and he will sniff to see if there’s any ignitable liquids in there that could have been used, possibly as accelerant,” Huntoon says. “Yahtzee’s nose is way better than human’s nose and he’ll be able to go in and locate those ignitable liquids that we can’t. In turn, we’ll be able to have a higher success rate at solving positive fires.”
Humans have about six-million sensory receptors in their nasal cavities, while dogs have about 100-million receptors. Plus, the part of a dog’s brain that’s devoted to analyzing odors is about 40 times larger than the comparable part of the human brain.
“When Yahtzee smells an ignitable liquid, he sits down. That’s called a primary alert and that’s him letting me know that he has found something,” Huntoon says. “So he smells all those different things and he can determine which one is ignitable liquid.”
Huntoon says he’s thrilled to have his new partner become a part of the team, on and off the job.
“Yahtzee lives with me and my family. He comes into work with me every day. He spends the day in the office. When I go on calls, he goes on calls with me and we train multiple times a day,” Huntoon says. “When we get a call, we respond together and he goes to work. It makes my job a lot more fun.”
Funding for Yahtzee and his training was provided through the State Farm Arson Dog Program, which has placed more than 450 dogs across the U.S. and Canada since its launch in 1993.