It’s a real on-the-nose operation.
Long Island’s secret weapon of highly skilled pups has snuffed out hundreds of sneaky arson perps who think they’ve covered their tracks, including making a bust in a puzzling, months-long murder mystery.
The razor-sharp Nassau County Fire Marshal K-9 unit has been invaluable for more than a decade, as the pups can whiff more than 300 accelerants and chemicals that no firefighter or investigator can, tying criminals back to scenes.
“Sometimes we’ll put a single drop of gasoline on a coffee stern, and then we’ll hide it in a whole football field,” Lt. Joseph Battaglia, who handles a dog named Pilot, told The Post.
“Pilot got it in seven seconds. … They’re very good at what they do. They’re a good tool in our toolbox.”
A rookie dog named Leah earned her bone in 2018 when she discovered that 75-year-old James Coppola’s death wasn’t accidental after his lavish Centre Island home burned to ash.
“When the firemen came in, they didn’t even know that there was a body there,” said her handler, Matthew Kerin, Nassau’s fire marshal investigator.
“They ended up finding the body — half of it, because that’s how bad the fire was.”
Kerin called in his four-legged partner to sniff around the rubble for vapors to prove foul play.
“We collected, I think, 23 pieces of evidence that she had found in this house,” he said of the Labrador retriever’s efforts.
Leah’s nose led to murder charges for the victim’s mistress, Long Beach’s Jennifer Gross, who was convicted of first killing Coppola and then setting the blaze as cover — before she went on the lam.
“It took us about eight months to find her, but 23 pieces of evidence later, it helped us narrow down everything,” Kerin said.
That was one of the countless instances where the unit helped serve justice, as it regularly gets praised by Nassau’s top dog, County Executive Bruce Blakeman.
“Their expertise strengthens our investigative capabilities and acts as a powerful deterrent against criminals who commit arson,” The Republican, who is running for governor this year, said.
Leah, who was nationally recognized for her talents, has spent nearly a decade on the force, mainly alongside Pilot, who was called in to help at the 10-alarm Marcal paper plant fire in New Jersey in 2019.
“She was the best partner I ever had,” Kerin said of Leah, whom he brings home to his own dog and family each night.
Got that dawg in them
His work woof recently retired and given a huge send-off by the fire marshal’s office, which has already recruited a replacement named Chuck, who also lives with Kerin now.
“I spend more time with Leah and Chuck than I do with my own family,” Kerin joked, adding that Leah still goes into the office with him and the other dogs daily to avoid loneliness at home.
“First thing in the morning, they’re ready at the door to go to work.”
The trio, originally from a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) program, is “trained basically like Olympic athletes” routinely by their Nassau handlers.
“We have to monitor their weight,” said Kerin, adding that “they’re super friendly and they’re very smart.”
The dogs are trained with food rewards and will only eat from a pouch their handlers wear in small, frequent doses in exchange for daily tasks, big and small.
“They actually change a little bit and get into a mode when they’re ready to work,” said Battaglia.
“When Pilot sees my food patch, he just gets the flip switch, and he wants to go find whatever that ignited liquid is.”
The pups prove themselves in routine practice and simulations, oftentimes in the fire marshal’s spacious garage for trucks and hazmat.
Kerin and Battaglia will lay out burnt clothes and blocks of wood, plus accessories like purses and place a single, microscopic drip of accelerant among the piles for the dogs to fetch, as they can whiff its vapor with no time to spare.
And the furry force is inseparable, welcoming Chuck as family, too.
“Leah and him hit it off the bat. They’re like brother and sister,” said Kerin.
The dogs are also a delight at their Westbury facility, which houses several Nassau County agencies whose employees are more than willing to spoil man’s best friend.
The canine core is as good at sniffing out treats off the job as they are while working.
“Every office has a desk — and they have a stash. The dogs know exactly where to go, so they do get a couple of treats here,” said Kerin, who added that Fire Marshall Michael Uttaro is an easy target.
“They’re very lovable and very affectionate — and they break you down pretty quickly,” Uttaro confessed.
Read the full article here