‘Wonder Dog’ Follows Her Nose to Places Where Fires Were Set

Blanche the Wonder Dog flunked out of seeing-eye dog school because of her curious nose. Instead of watching for obstacles, she preferred tracking down interesting scents.

But all was not lost. She found a new career that makes good use of her hypersensitive nose. Today, Blanche, a golden Labrador retriever, is Los Angeles’ first canine arson investigator.

Blanche put her nose to the test Wednesday before a group of Southern California fire investigators attending a class in Glendale. She picked out the precise places where firefighters had set off their demonstration blazes.

“They’ve had so much success over the years with bomb- and drug-detection dogs,” said Blanche’s owner, Tony La Palio, a Los Angeles city firefighter based in Pacoima. “That’s why they came up with ‘canine accelerant detection.’ That’s a fancy name for an arson dog.”

He said Blanche’s nose is far more sensitive than the mechanical devices that are widely used to detect traces of flammable liquid at scenes of suspicious fires. On Wednesday afternoon, she sat down and pointed her nose at a carpet area, a sofa and a bed where investigators had used a flammable liquid to start fires that morning.

In another test, the 21-month-old retriever picked one firefighter whose boots had been marked with a volatile solution out of a group of four.

“The dog is a tool,” said Burbank Fire Capt. Steve Patterson, who attended Wednesday’s demonstration and used Blanche after a recent condominium fire in his city. “It can’t do all your work for you. But it will help you feel comfortable with what your findings are.”

The dogs can lead an investigator to chemical residue that can be analyzed in a lab, then used in court. They can also help locate suspected arsonists. During one recent investigation, Blanche alerted authorities to a suspicious smell on the clothing of a bystander, who is now a suspect in the continuing inquiry.

Blanche is believed to be one of about a dozen arson dogs nationwide. Because they are costly to train, these canines may never replace the traditional firehouse Dalmatian.

But they are attracting lots of attention. The state fire marshal’s office acquired two arson dogs a year ago and placed one in San Diego and the other in Northern California. The dogs, capable of detecting minute amounts of 10 combustible liquids, are loaned to local departments. The demand for their services has been high, state officials said.

“If we weren’t looking at some serious budget cuts in California, we might be considering putting one or two more into service,” said Sandy Simpson, a spokeswoman for the state fire marshal’s office.

La Palio learned about arson dogs from a fire investigation magazine. He became more interested when a canine was brought in to help investigate the Pan-Pacific Auditorium arson in Los Angeles in 1989.

He acquired Blanche in January from a training program run by Connecticut State Police and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Because of his own department’s budget constraints, La Palio paid the $5,000 training fee. Blanche lives with him in Long Beach and stays with him when he is on duty at the firehouse.

During off-duty hours, La Palio has been responding to requests from arson investigators throughout the region. He and Blanche provide help on a voluntary basis, although their travel expenses are underwritten by a group of Los Angeles area arson investigators.

About a month ago, Blanche was asked to sift through the ashes of a Glendale spa sales outlet. “We found places where we thought the fire had started, but we couldn’t detect flammable liquids,” Glendale fire investigator Joe Lopez said.

Blanche identified places where she smelled chemicals. “We sent them to the lab, and they said they tested positive for some type of solvents,” Lopez said. Authorities concluded that the fire was deliberately set and an investigation is continuing.

The frisky retriever has come a long way since her first seeing-eye dog training.

“She was a dropout,” La Palio said. “Those dogs have to be completely docile. But her curiosity causes her to go around and smell things. That’s a benefit for us.”