South Wales Fire & Rescue Service are the only fire and rescue service in Wales to own and operate fire investigation dogs, and there are only 14 other Fire Investigation dogs across Britain.  

The South Wales Fire & Rescue Service Fire Investigation dogs have worked all across Wales from Monmouth to Rhyl in North Wales.  The Fire Investigation dog’s role is to support the fire investigation officer by assisting with establishing the cause of fire.

What is a Fire Investigation Dog?

Fire Investigation dogs are able to search a fire scene and detect the presence of accelerants (i.e. petrol, white spirits).  These accelerants may have been used to deliberately start the fire.

Fire Investigation dogs are able to detect up to 10 different types of accelerants including mixed substances.  Success is based on highly skilled training plus the respect, trust and bonding between dog and handler.

Advantages of a Fire Investigation Dogs

Fire Investigation dogs are able to search an area of 400–500 square meters in under 10 minutes.  A Fire Investigation officer would possibly take around four hours to search an area of 20-30 meters. 

The dog is able to locate the strongest source of accelerant within 1-2 inches, thus ensuring that the best samples are recovered.

Fire Investigation dogs are able to differentiate between natural hydrocarbons produced during combustion and hydrocarbons introduced by an arsonist.

Fire Investigation dogs can attend a fire scene up to 5 or more days later.

The dogs olfactory system can detect small traces of accelerants around 0.01 micro litres.

Indication

Once the location of an ignitable liquid trace has been found the Fire Investigation Dog must convey this to the handler.

This can be one of two ways either pro-active or passive indication.

The pro-active dog will indicate by digging or scratching at the site of location.

The passive alert dog will assume either a sitting or prone posture with its nose pointing towards the site of origin.