Sculpture honors arson fighters, their dogs

The firefighter and his dog look into each other's eyes -- the space between their hollow bronze bodies symbolizes the bond between human and animal.

The 7-foot sculpture, commemorating the service of arson-investigation dogs and their trainers across the country, will be the first of its kind placed in Washington, in the shadow of the Capitol building.

Its creator, Colorado firefighter Austin Weishel, 22 -- and Sadie the black lab, which modeled for the dog in the statue -- attended the unveiling outside the New York City Fire Museum. It will go on a 12-city tour before proceeding to the capital. The American Humane Association and State Farm insurance sponsored the tour.

"Me and this dog go to fire investigations every other day, so I don't need a hobby," said Sadie's handler, Jerry Means, an arson agent with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation who came up with the idea and commissioned the artist. "But hearing some of the stories [of hero dogs], I had no choice."

Sadie, who lay panting on the hot New York City sidewalk during the unveiling and the subsequent news conference, is an accelerant-sniffing dog, trained to recognize the scent of the chemicals used to start fires, then sniff them on the arsonists, who usually return to the scenes of their crimes.

"It's difficult to do," said Means. "Most of the time they have to go into horrendous conditions where most dogs -- most people -- would be scared to go in. Things falling down, broken glass."

The dogs are only allowed to eat after they solve challenges that reinforce their accelerant-detecting behaviors.

Because of the difficulty and expense of training such dogs, only 80 are in service across the country, according to Robin Ganzert, the president of American Humane Association, which holds a yearly contest for Americans to vote on their favorite hero dogs across eight categories. Sadie was last year's arson winner, which helped bring awareness and money to the sculpture project.

"There's a leash on the dog, but there's an unseen connection. They're a bond, one team, human and animal," said artist-firefighter Weishel.

The statue got his first sign of approval before it arrived. "Dogs thought it was a real dog and scratched up the base," Weishel said.