The event was sponsored by Southern Missouri Judicial Services Servicemaster, Springfield, and Karla Woods, State Farm Insurance.
Woods said to BuffaloReflex.com, “We sponsored one of these arson seminars a few years ago when fire loss ratio in the county was high. Right after we did it, the county experienced a decrease. Loss ratio has increased again, and that drives (insurance) premiums up, something none of us like.”
Sergeant Jim Stanley of the Greene County Task Force started off the seminar with a slide presentation titled “Arson for the First Responder.” The presentation covered various destruction scenes and how first responders were able to piece together the evidence to show where and how a fire originated.
Stanley, who is a certified bomb technician, was also able to speak from first-hand experience how he has been able to draw conclusions about the origins of fires.
The end of the seminar featured Tim Brenner and a Belgian malinois named Stryker of Southern Missouri Judicial Services. Stryker, who has been trained and certified in the detection of ignitable liquids, was challenged to locate two time-weathered gasoline-daubed strips of paper hidden in two separate locations inside the building while the first responders attending the seminar watched on. Stryker successfully located both strips.
The seminar’s attendees were represented by law enforcement officers and firefighters from departments at Buffalo and Southern Dallas County, Louisburg, Urbana, Tunas, Windyville, Long Lane, Pittsburg, Preston and Cross Timbers.
For more information, visit BuffaloReflex.com.
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