R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press Zach Denome and Jet the dog walk near the Besse Fire Hall in Escanaba Township. The pair are to go through accelerant detection training early next year.

ESCANABA — A new service dog is expected to soon join the ranks of working K9s in Delta County, and with a different area of expertise — arson detection. Zachary Denome, chief of the Escanaba Township Volunteer Fire Department, began looking into the idea of obtaining an arson-detecting dog — one trained to home-in on the scents of fire accelerants — several months ago, with the intention that the dog would belong to the Escanaba Township Fire Department. But it would be a big commitment and liability for the volunteer department, so instead, the plan shifted — Denome and the new dog will be an unaffiliated solo unit that can respond to fires where the causes are unknown and possibly suspicious.

Most police K9s working in the area — including Enzo and Cibo with the Escanaba Public Safety Department and Jett and Rexi with the Delta County Sheriff’s Office — are trained in narcotics detection and human tracking. Others provide support for explosives detection. No nearby dogs are trained for fire accelerants; however, Michigan State Police confirmed that they do have accelerant-detecting K9s who could respond anywhere in the state as needed.

The other local K9s have trained through D&D K9 Dynamics in Gladstone, and Denome’s new dog will, too. The fire chief has been in close communication with Sammi Grzybowski, the D&D company president and a certified handler, about the process.

Denome recently purchased Jet, a German shepherd mix about 1 1/2 years old, through the Delta Animal Shelter. Though the pair will need to complete specialized training before becoming a certified K9 unit, Jet had been trained in the Dawgz Adapt program at Alger Correctional Facility in Munising. Dawgz Adapt is one program through the Michigan Department of Corrections that pairs people in the prison system with dogs whom they provide with “basic obedience training, command training, pre-task training, and much more,” according to the MDOC.

When they saw Jet was up for adoption in Munising, “Sammi from D&D and I went up there, and we did a just a little basic training with him to see how he would do, and he did awesome,” Denome said. “So we ended up taking him home that afternoon.”

It’ll be several months before Denome and Jet begin the program at D&D. Trainer Mathias “Marty” Munger explained that after the basic training fundamentals — obedience and handling — are nailed down, Jet would then be introduced to different odors and trained to alert his handler when accelerants are detected. Once the team at D&D thinks the duo of Denome and Jet are ready, a specialist from downstate qualified to certify the pair in arson detection will probably come up to complete the process.

How a dog alerts to his handler that he’s identified a certain odor varies, Munger said. A dog might sit as a “passive alert” to indicate the general area of where he detects the smell. Pinpointing gets better and better over time the closer a dog and his handler become. “You see this change in behavior when the dog starts getting to it — he gets to the point where he sits or lays down … I’ve had different dogs do different things, because all dogs are different,” Munger said. “Some are way cool to watch.”

When that detection and signaling happens, law enforcement can then take samples of the soil or material and send it off to a lab for testing to confirm an accelerant is present.

The training that Jet and Denome will have to go through — considered single-purpose — is expected to cost about $13,000. Since the pair is not connected with a department, Denome said he’s formed a new nonprofit to support the endeavor. The public can help fund the unit’s training by making donations at Baybank to “Ember Track K9.”