West Fargo firefighters uses trained dog to pinpoint fire origins

WEST FARGO — The West Fargo Fire Department is home to one of only 65 accelerant detection canines in the country.

Mika, a 7½-year-old English black lab, is trained to sniff out petroleum to help determine where fires may have started. She has been with her handler, John Neeb, at West Fargo for the past five-plus years after completing a month-long training program in New Hampshire.

Since its inception in 1993, the State Farm Arson Dog Program has put more than 435 dogs to work in 46 states and three Canadian provinces.

"We do have equipment that can smell petroleum, but it has to be directly on the source of where that petroleum is. Her nose will pick up from half a block away any type of smell that we need for petroleum. So she’ll take us right to the source," Neeb said.

Mika was ori