City of Moncton Announces New Four-Legged Staff Member for the Moncton Fire Department 2022-05-11
The City of Moncton is pleased to announce that it is welcoming a new member to the Moncton Fire Department, effective April 29, 2022. Kernel is a 2-year-old Labrador Retriever that is a certified Accelerant Detection Canine (ADC) and will assume the duties on the Moncton Fire Department following the retirement of Magic, another ADC that has been with the Department for 10.5 years.
Charles LeBlanc, Deputy Fire Chief (Fire Prevention) and canine partner Kernel have recently been certified through the Maine State Police under the standards of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. The certification was awarded following 200 hours of training at the New Hampshire Fire Training Academy in Concord, New Hampshire. All costs of the training, including for the dog, are covered by State Farm Insurance.
“With the retirement of K9 Magic, we look forward to welcoming Kernel to assist in origin and cause of fires investigations in New Brunswick and the other Maritime provinces” said Fire Chief Conrad Landry. “Our ADC plays an important role in investigations, and I would like to thank Deputy Chief LeBlanc for his commitment to the ongoing training that is required to ensure our K9 unit is ready to investigate any fire at any time”.
The Moncton Fire Department’s K9 unit assists with fire investigation efforts through the collection of valuable evidence, especially in instances of arson. Where the sense of smell amongst canines is between 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than humans, the trained canines are capable of detecting fuel and/or odours from fire scenes that, for humans, are not noticeable.
Through the State Farm Arson Dog program, over 435 accelerant detection canine (ADC) teams have been trained throughout the United States and Canada, including two (Magic and Kernel, both with Deputy Fire Chief LeBlanc) for the Moncton Fire Department.
Information:
Communications, City of Moncton
communications@moncton.ca