What a good boy: Garvey's sniffing out arsonists

The English springer spaniel is in an elite squad at Fire and Rescue NSW and he is one of the service's most highly sought after personnel in the fire investigation unit.

Garvey's highly-trained nose has already been put to work in the Illawarra numerous times and when the Mercury met him, he was on a new task - finding kerosene.

Ignitable liquid detection canines can sniff out five liquids commonly used in arson attacks and fires under investigation.

Garvey had never smelt kerosene before the day the Illawarra Mercury met him at Fairy Meadow as he is still young and in training.

"We can train our dogs to 0.5 of a microlitre of any of the ignitable liquids," Garvey's handler Senior Firefighter Garrett said.

Garvey is task focused - find the liquid accelerant and then he gets a reward. And, for this pup, the reward he loves most is not food, but playing fetch with a tennis ball.

When arriving at the scene of a burnt-out building Senior Firefighter Garrett would usually slip specially-designed booties onto the dog's paws to protect them from the debris and contaminants.

On the day the Mercury met him, in the park behind Fairy Meadow Beach, no booties were needed for this training session.

Cotton tips dipped into kerosene had already been placed around the park for Garvey to 'find', but there were also distractors - small carpet squares dipped in diesel.

Modern-day furniture contains petrochemicals such as diesel, and dogs like Garvey are trained to ignore that scent and to only find accelerants like kerosene.

"Find it" are the only two words Senior Firefighter Garrett needs to say for Garvey to know play time is over and his work has started.

The pup moves quickly as he races around park sniffing the air and the ground, and within seconds he 'indicates' as he finds the first kero-dipped cotton tip.

Praise is vital as dogs learn how to do their job and Senior Firefighter Garrett tells the dog "yes" in an excited voice, before the canine quickly moves on to fine more accelerants.

Ignitable liquid detection canines are a vital piece of Fire Investigation and Research Unit, and their keen sense of smell saves firefighters hours of laborious work.

"They're part of the arsenal that we have in fire investigation. In our unit and they're utilised whenever we don't know why that fire started," Senior Firefighter Garrett said.

If a firefighter was to do the same job as Garvey, they would use a piece of equipment that can sample a 45 centimetres cubed parcel of air every 30 seconds.

"You're going to be taking a long time to get through a scene if you're going to be effectively sampling that entire scene," he said.

The instruments firefighters would use are not selective and will detect everything, including petrochemicals from furniture, while the dogs are trained to ignore that scent.

As far as he knows, FRNSW is the only firefighting service in the Southern Hemisphere with a dedicated ignitable liquid detection canine unit.

"Garvey is pretty special in that he is the first of the English springer spaniels that we have used with this capability,"

"The breed is known for its detection capabilities across the board, they're used for environmental conservation work, quarantine, explosives, cadaver, but it's the first time that we've utilised them for ignitable liquids."

Canines used by FRNSW are so good at their job, that Senior Firefighter Garrett's pervious detection dog, Gandalf, was awarded Canine Hero of the Year in the Service Dog category at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in 2025.