Somerville Dog Is Sniffing Out Arson Crimes

SOMERVILLE, NJ — He may be cute but this Somerville pooch is on fire, so to speak. Blaze, appropriately named for his profession, has been helping law enforcement to investigate suspicious fires.

Owned by Captain Walter Zieser, a New Jersey arson investigator, Blaze is a trained accelerant detection K-9 for the state.

Zieser rescued Blaze, a German Shepard, from a shelter in North Carolina in November. He began training Blaze right away and finished up at the end of May. As part of it Blaze had to do environmental training where he rode on a State Police boat on the Atlantic Ocean, flew in a forest fire helicopter and even went up four stories in a tower ladder.

"He needs to be able to overcome the stressful situations and handle any situation," Zieser said.

Since then Blaze has helped Zieser and authorities investigate fires in Bergen County, Bedminster and most recently the string of arson fires in Linden. (See Related: Arrest Made In String Of 'Suspicious' Fires In Union County)

"He did give a positive indication of an accelerant being used on the house that was under renovation at the time," Zieser said of the fires in Linden in July.

When Blaze positively identifies an area, samples are then taken to the State Police lab to be checked out and confirmed.

"Because dogs can’t testify in court," Zieser said.

Zieser's unit is comprised of four member who all have a K-9. They handle a lot of the fire investigations throughout the state.

Blaze doesn’t get used in every fire, but ones with suspicion of ignitable liquids or accelerants.

"Dogs have a 1,000 times greater sense of smell than humans have," Zieser said. "We may not smell an accelerant but the dogs are trained to detect it within minutes."

Blaze may be an employee of the state but he comes home with Zieser and bonds with his family at the end of the day.

"It’s very rewarding and he is making a difference by putting the bad guys in jail which is a really good thing," Zieser said. "Blaze absolutely loves it and going to work. He will see me putting on my boots and sit by the door crying because he wants to go."

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