Awesome animal alert: Meet Lincoln, Stafford’s newest accelerant sniffer

The Stafford County Fire and Rescue Department has a new member. Lincoln, an ignitable liquid detection canine, is now on active duty.

Lincoln is a two-and-a-half-year-old yellow lab partnered with Deputy Fire Marshal Dan Pappas. The team just completed a month of training in New Hampshire to become certified. The dogs help law enforcement collect evidence that may be used to prosecute an arsonist.

On average, 12 cases of arson (the department calls them incendiary cases) are investigated each in Stafford County.  To help combat crime,  State Farm insurance helped pay the initial $25,000 for Lincoln’s training, something the company has afforded since 1993.

Lincoln was selected for this line of work due to his hunting drive (a desire to keep his nose close to the ground and seek out the source of an odor) and Ability to Scent Discriminate (the capability to differentiate between multiple odors and find a specific smell).

K9 Lincoln received his initial training at Maine Specialty Dogs and later at the New Hampshire Fire Academy, where they used training techniques to “imprint” his ability to detect (sniff) accelerants (such as gas) normally used to start fires.

Lincoln’s arrival comes on the heels of the retirement of Duchess, the department’s previous ignitable liquid detection canine, more often referred to as an arson canine. Duchess has served the department since 2015 alongside her handler, Deputy Fire Marshal Ben Gouldman. As a team, Duchess and Gouldman have helped to solve more than 50 cases throughout the Northern and Central Virginia regions.

Over the past 29 years, the State Farm program has provided 100% of the funding for the acquisition and training of over 435 accelerant detection canine (ADC) teams throughout the U.S. and Canada. They investigate the home, business, vehicle, and wildland fires.