A new citizen of Brownwood and crewmember of the Brownwood Fire Department was introduced and presented her badge during the city council meeting Tuesday.
Nika, a 21-month-old black Labrador retriever, was officially recognized by Fire Chief Del Albright and Fire Marshal Buddy Preston. She and her handler Preston completed four weeks of training on Friday at the State Farm Arson Dog Program in Alfred, Maine. Nika was born December 24, 2009 and raised at the Indiana State Prison. She was entered into the seeing eye dog program where she learned obedience training. For some reason, she was not selected for this program but was transferred into the accelerant imprinting program and has done very well.
“Thanks to State Farm for this program without that Nika would not be here in Brownwood,” stated Chief Albright. “She is an excellent tool to fight arson and a good tool for fire prevention. She will serve the citizens of Brownwood well.”
A grant applied for by the City of Brownwood in 2008 allowed Preston to secure an arson dog which will serve Brown County and the surrounding areas. The grant paid for everything-travel expenses for both Preston and Nika, training, and more. Local businesses have also donated to Nika’s care. Ag Mart has donated food, electrolytes and vitamins and a kennel for Preston’s vehicle and Wal-Mart has donated gift cards.
Preston spoke of Nika’s disposition stating, “She is a very good dog, well mannered and had the best disposition of the dogs there.”
Six arson teams were trained during the four weeks Preston was at the school with Nika. These teams included state fire marshals from New Hampshire; Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada and St. Josephs, Missouri; state policemen from New Jersey, Kansas and Tennessee; and Preston.
Preston and Nika have already spent time in an area facing disaster relief, as they were in Maine when hurricane Irene hit, leaving the area without electricity for four days. They trained in a camping style environment without electricity for cooking, air conditioning, cell phones (because they lost power and could not be charged) or television. The good news was that Maine was green and had some rain while Preston and Nika were there. Irene brought rain from Sunday through Wednesday with amounts up to 6” in one day and toppled trees. The temperature was between 54-82°; however their sleeping quarters did not have any air conditioning. The lunchroom was able to feed the teams through use of a gas stove. Preston reported that they ate a lot of sandwiches and soup during the outage and there was no hot water for showers.
Their training was very successful and will continue each day. Preston must keep a training log to keep Nika at her best. Preston stated that although his job as fire marshal will be a lot busier, Nika will reduce the time needed to investigate fires. According to Preston, a fire marshal can usually find the place of origin pretty quick; however with an arson dog, a pinpoint of where and what started the fire can be identified very quickly. She will alert on the spot where a sample needs to be taken when evidence is sent to an arson lab for investigation.
Fire prevention programs will also be a part of Nika’s job in addition to the investigative work for which she is trained. Preston stated that he and Nika are planning visits to a couple of local schools around Fire Prevention week, October 9-15. They will visit a daycare on October 7th.
Nika will do her first fundraiser on October 1st when she and Preston join the S.W.A.G. group (Students with a Goal) to collect 9 volt batteries which will be distributed to needy or underprivileged families to replace the batteries in their smoke detectors.
Pictured above, Chief Del Albright places BFD Badge on Nika’s collar with help of Fire Marshall Buddy Preston. Below are Preston and Nika with State Farm agents of Brownwood (left to right): Larry Holder, Mike Hall and Larry Pullin.
