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Larry StemmermanAccelerant Detector Canine Handling |
Larry began his firefighting and fire investigation career with the Lawrence, Kansas Fire Department in November 1961 and retiring in December 1991. As a Senior Lieutenant, he conducted fire investigations for the Lawrence, Kansas Fire Department and the Douglas County Fire Investigations Squad from 1972 through 1991. He has instructed fire investigation classes for the University of Kansas Fire Extension, Kansas Chapter IAAI and other city and county agencies.
Larry has been employed as an investigator with Associated Research Consultants, Independent Insurance Investigations, Inc., Jacobs Investigations, Inc., Consolidated Forensic Investigations, Inc., and Fire Consultants Case Review International, Inc.
He was certified as an Arson Investigator by the State of Kansas from 1986 through 1991 until his retirement from the Lawrence, Kansas Fire Department.
In May 2005 Larry purchased a trained accelerant detection dog “Skylar” from Southern Star Ranch K-9 Training Center, Florence, Texas.
In July 2005 Larry (and Skylar) completed an 80-hour training program for Accelerant Detector Canine Handling.
Skylar is a 6-year-old lab trained to detect accelerants. She is a play reward dog, which means when she alerts she is rewarded with a tossed ball. When she alerts she sits and points towards the location where she detects the odor that has caused her to alert. All K-9 alerts must be confirmed by a laboratory examination to confirm the presence of an accelerant.
The use of Skylar greatly improves the ability of the investigator to collect a positive sample. Skylar has examined over 100 fire scenes.