His nose may be cold and wet, but Blaze is worth his weight in kibble when it comes to sniffing out evidence in woods fires.
The 4-year-old bloodhound has been working with the Alabama Forestry Commission for about three years. He's not your average arson dog, snuffling out telltale whiffs of gasoline or other things used to start fires. Blaze is a man tracker, said Craig Hill, chief of the commission's law enforcement division. He's the only arson dog working in the state forestry agency.
"It's amazing what he can do," Hill said. "Last March, down in Baldwin County, there was a suspicious fire. People often leave evidence behind in a crime, and human scent is just as unique as a fingerprint.
"Blaze worked the fire and found a scent trail. He tracked the suspect to a nearby subdivision, past several houses and jumps right on the door of the suspect. Of course, the man who answered the door told us he hadn't been near the woods. But we were able to get in contact with witnesses who said they saw him walking into the woods."
That case is still pending in court.
Under the right conditions, bloodhounds can track scent trails that are several days old, as long as that trail hasn't been disturbed by weather of other interference, according to the American Bloodhound Club's website.
"When we find a trail, I'll give out before he does," said Donnie Parker, Blaze's partner and handler. "He can track a couple of miles with no problem. When he's on a track, you have to give him time to rest so he won't get hot. Statistics show that most woods arsonists live within a few miles of where they set fires and usually walk into the area where they set the fires.
"So if Blaze finds a trial, we can usually find who made it."
The dog is a valuable tool in investigations, Parker said.
Arson cases are especially difficult to prosecute, said Randall Houston, district attorney for the 19th Judicial Circuit.
"It's the nature of the crime that makes the investigation so hard," he said. "Most of your evidence is either going to be destroyed in the fire or in the efforts to put the fire out. Arson cases are almost always circumstantial cases.
"If a prosecutor has physical or forensic evidence in an arson case, they are way ahead of the game."
Give Blaze a scent source, and he's off to the races. The old-fashioned Hollywood scene where a piece of clothing is waved under the dog's nose to get him going isn't required. Sometimes all Parker has is a footprint.
"We put a piece of gauze in the footprint for about 10 minutes," he said. "Then we put the gauze inside a plastic bag and give Blaze a good smell. Most of the time we are tracking after that."
Forestry is big business in Alabama, producing about $12.78 billion in products each year, commission data shows. There are 22.8 million acres of timberland in the state, amounting to about 68 percent of the total land area.
Alabama has the third most timberland acreage in the 48 contiguous states, behind only Georgia and Oregon. Non-industrial, private landowners own 83 percent of the woodlands in the state.
Each year, about 42 percent of the woods fires in the state prove to be intentionally set, commission data shows.
The reasons behind the arson fires are varied, Hill said.
"You can't point to one overriding motive," he said. "Sometimes people get mad at a landowner and want to burn their woods. The cases of people being just a firebug, wanting to see a fire, are pretty rare."
When Blaze isn't tracking arsonists, he and Parker stand ready to assist other law enforcement agencies in tracking missing persons or suspects in other crimes. The four-legged sleuth is also good for public relations.
"He's a great tool when it comes to education," Hill said. "Donnie will take him to schools, and kids just love him. Adults love him, too. He's very approachable. So we get people's attention with Blaze and then we can tell them the importance of safety with fire."
Copyright 2012 - Montgomery Advertiser, Ala.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
