CUMBERLAND — Within days of graduating training, Quinn, the Office of the State Fire Marshal’s newest K-9, was on the job. His response marked the first time in nearly 20 years that Western Maryland has had an accelerant detection canine assigned to the region.
“I’m proud to welcome K-9 Quinn and senior deputy (Adam) Rounds to our Accelerant Detection Canine team,” Acting State Fire Marshal Jason M. Mowbray said in a press release. “Quinn’s placement in Western Maryland is a significant step forward in strengthening our statewide investigative capabilities. Reducing response times will help ensure that our investigators are collecting evidence that is critical to arson investigation.”
Senior Deputy State Fire Marshal Adam Rounds said his partner graduated training from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives National Canine Training Center in Front Royal, Virginia, on Nov. 7.
Rounds and Quinn responded on Nov. 11 to their first official incident — a fatal house fire north of Hagerstown in Long Meadow.
“Not taking away from the sadness I feel for the family of the deceased,” Rounds said, “it was exciting to work with Quinn on our first fire as an official team and making sure our training techniques were on point.”
Rounds said the Western Region is comprised of Garrett, Allegany and Washington counties, with secondary responsibility in Frederick and Montgomery counties.
Before Quinn joined the agency, due to geographical locations of the other accelerant detection canines in the state, there could be an approximate three- to four-hour wait for a handler to respond, according to Rounds. Having Quinn in the region will drastically cut wait time and the need to pull resources from other regions.
Rounds said agencies our limited with the number of accelerate detection teams they’re allotted.
“An ADC recently retired from our Southern Region, which opened up the opportunity for our agency to obtain another dog and assign it to the Western Region,” he said.
Rounds and Quinn are one of only 77 certified ATF-trained accelerant detection teams in the United States.
Born in prison
Quinn, a male black Labrador retriever, was born Aug. 8, 2024, part of the Puppies Behind Bars program. His initial training lasted until July 2025 when he was selected with five of his littermates to attend the specialized accelerant detection training in Front Royal, according to Rounds.
“He was raised at the Eastern Correctional Facility in Napanoch, New York,” Rounds said.
Puppies Behind Bars began in 1997 and works with correctional institutions to have inmates raise and train service dogs for law enforcement, first responders and veterans. On average, the dogs will spend two years living and training with an inmate handler, developing obedience, focus and adaptability before being placed into a specialized service program.
“The inmate starts them out with their basic obedience training, searching skills and playing fetch,” Rounds said. “On the weekends, the dogs go to outside foster families who take them to parks and businesses to get them socialized with different environments.”
The unique partnership not only produces highly skilled working dogs but also provides inmates with a sense of responsibility, empathy and purpose during their incarcerations.
“The cool part is the inmates and foster families write letters or notes about the dogs, including how they are doing, how they performed with tasks, their behavior skills, personal feelings about the dogs. The handlers are presented a book at the end of the ATF training with early pictures of the dogs and scanned copies of the letters and notes,” Rounds said.
Sniff test
The ATF’s training process is a rigorous 12-week course that trains the dogs to detect odors within six families of ignitable liquids, Rounds said.
Quinn was trained using food and praise as rewards, performing thousands of repetitions of scene recognition and detection.
“To become certified, Quinn needed to pass the Accelerant Odor Recognition Test,” Rounds said.
The course is set up by an ATF chemist, and ignitable liquids are put into cans consisting of two circles of 15 cans each. The cans are made up of burnt and unburnt material.
“The dog runs through each can and alerts on the cans where the accelerant was placed. The dog cannot miss any of the cans that are spiked with the accelerant or they fail,” Rounds said.
Once this test is passed, the dog is tested on burnt clothing, pinpoint location, vehicle searches, building searches and open field searches.
“All the tests are run blind and must be completed in a set time limit,” Rounds said. “We trained with the dogs through these different scenarios for five weeks prior to the certification test day.”
‘Yes!’
Part of the food and praise reward training involves daily work for Quinn and Rounds.
“In order for Quinn to eat, we have to train every day,” Rounds said.
His reward for finding an accelerant is food followed by the secondary praise word of ‘yes!’, according to Rounds.
“Every day I set up different exercises for him to train on and once he alerts, he is fed. I have to keep a detailed log on his training to include what accelerant I placed out, what material it was on, how many reps we did and any additional comments I want to make,” Rounds said. “This makes the bond between Quinn and I even stronger since we get the chance to work every day.”
Rounds added that Quinn’s weight is set at a specific number and he is only allowed to be 5% above or below that weight.
“In addition to his daily food rations, I like to give him a small milk bone in the evenings along with a C.E.T. rawhide chew on occasion,” Rounds said. “… if it was up to (Quinn), he would eat anything he could.”
In his off time, Quinn loves playing fetch and with the other household dog, Rounds said.
“My wife and I have twin 4-year-old boys, so they love to chase and play with him and he loves to chase them back,” Rounds added.