The dog specialized in the search of accelerating products is a complement in investigation to determine if a fire is an arson or not. He indicates precisely the place where accelerating was used, reducing so the number of samples which must be gathered and examined in laboratory. He is able to distinguish various varieties of substances employed to light fire. So the dog makes it possible to earn time and money.

It's started in 1986, in the United States, when the first canine in the world, called Mattie, was formed by Mr. Jim Butterworth in the state of Connecticut, with the assistance of the fire dept of the Niagara. Mattie was a black Labrador. The first tests showed that he could detect 17 different odors.

In addition to the search of acceleratings on the fire scene, this formation allows the detection of people flamers, discovered by trackings or search of contamined evidences, clothes or contamined vehicles.

In Switzerland, this specialization hardly begins. Jérome and Ygor are the first elements of the State Police of Vaud. March 7, 2007, the team was certified by the specialists of the Belgian canine unit. Since, the interventions multiply, proving thus that there was real waiting of the inspectors (read also "Our statistics")
Accelerating on fire scene detection dogs are also conditioned thru the SOKKS method.

Actions on fire scenes are often perilous because the buildings can collapse down at any time. Because of that, like on this picture taken on a real search in the State of Vaud, the dog has to feel at ease in all the situations and it is up to his handler to sometimes make proof of ingeniousness to reach the zone of investigation…