Meet Dakota!

Dakota is an 84 pound three foot tall chocolate Labrador, who is an official member of our department. Dakota is a 7-year-old professionally trained fire/arson canine that was sworn into office by Mayor Bruce Akers and was issued a badge of service.

Firefighter/Investigator John Frazier, a 25-year veteran of the department owns, and trains the dog. She is certified by the State of New York to find seventeen ignitable liquids such as gasoline, kerosene, lighter fluid and paint thinner. After a fire, she is used as a tool to find the substances. She is brought to the scene and searches to find any ignitable liquids present.

Labradors retrievers are the breeds usually used for fire/arson dogs. If they qualify in intelligence and temperament, after they are a year old, they go through a 9- week training period learning how to be a fire/arson dog. There are two dogs in Northeast Ohio and eight dogs in the state of Ohio trained for this purpose. Training costs can exceed $10,000.

Fire Departments in the area use Dakota for fire investigations. In her 5 year career she has worked 100+ "real" fire scenes. When working, Dakota wears a harness, when she locates an ignitable liquid, she indicates by assuming a passive alert position (sitting and pointing with her nose) if anything is detected. Dakota is trained using the food reward method meaning she eats only when trained; training is a daily event.

Social skills are included in Dakota's training because she has to get along with the different people she comes into contact with on the job. Chances are if you have occasion to drop by the fire station on a B-Shift, you'll see Dakota sitting at the breakfast table involved in the morning debriefing.