DES MOINES, Iowa — Yahtzee, a 2-year-old black Labrador, joined the ranks of the Des Moines Fire Department earlier this summer. In the few months since he's been brought on as an accelerant detection canine, his handler says he's already making a clear impact.
"He makes the job so much easier," Captain Eric Huntoon said. "He's found evidence that I'm sure we would not have found without him."
Huntoon is Yahtzee's sole handler, and the dog lives with him and his family when he's not on the clock. Huntoon said, without an arson dog, investigators look for certain fire and burn patterns to figure out if an ignitable liquid was used.
He said it can be tricky to find exactly where traces of liquid were left to recover for evidence.
"But with Yahtzee he alerts to where he thinks it's at. And then that's where we take our sample," Huntoon said.
"It just makes you wonder how many times we've missed it in the past, because you don't know what you don't know. He's found some evidence that I would have not have thought to look at; you wouldn't have expected it there," he added.
In just the first few months of work, Huntoon said Yahtzee is already proving his worth.
"To this point, he's found up to close to a dozen pieces of evidence. And since those cases are ongoing, I can't get too much detail on those, but he's definitely doing a good job," he said.
And Huntoon said Yahtzee's impact stretches beyond the closing of cases.
"It's great. I mean, they, you know, you get to have a pal hangout with you. The people with fire stations and the firefighters love him, people down here at admin love him. I hope that he cheers them up a little bit makes their day a little bit better," Huntoon said.