Firehouses are no longer doghouses

Lisa Ferguson

Tuesday, Nov. 19, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

They will forever be known as firehouse dogs.

In the early days, before motorized trucks came along, Dalmatians watched over the fire station's horses, which were easily spooked by smoke and fire.

"Sometimes they'd bolt," explains Evert Wilson, public education officer for the Las Vegas Fire Department. "The dogs, on command, would sit between the horses' feet," nipping on their legs to make them stay put.

Others were trained to sniff things out and used as rescue dogs.

But you'll be hard pressed to find a Dalmatian at a firehouse these days, mostly for liability reasons.

Still, the spotted pooches are the pet of choice for many firefighters.

Wilson has owned two Dalmatians in the last 20 years, both females named Sparky T. Firedog (the first died several years ago).

Ironically, it was Wilson who saved Sparky No. 2's life when she was just a pup.

"The breeder told me that I could come over when they were being born and pick out my puppy," Wilson recalls. "When I got there, (the mother) was having trouble delivering one.

"I got in the box with the mother. She popped out this puppy that was kind of blue." With "a little compression" and a bit of doggy CPR, he helped her start breathing.

She turned out to be an excellent guard dog and is "fabulous with kids.

Once, Wilson put Sparky and his toddler-age daughter in the back yard and "told the dog to watch the kid," he recalls.

"A little bit later, we hear this blood-curdling scream coming out of my daughter. She had tried to crawl out of the play area ... and the dog grabbed her by the back of the diaper and kept pulling her back in."

Proof that, "They're not your lay-around-by-the-fireplace type of family dog," he says.

But both Sparkys have been more than just pets to Wilson, they're also his on-the-job partners.

Both have worked teaching fire safety and prevention to thousands of Clark County schoolchildren since the early '80s, in an upbeat program dubbed "Sparky's ABCs of Fire Safety."

"When Sparky visits, A is for alarm," Wilson explains, adding that the dog also helps out on "stop, drop and roll" demonstrations.

"The teachers like it because (students) learn the alphabet and fire safety at the same time ... in a friendly, nonthreatening manner. She's a real big hit wherever she goes," especially when she rides in parades atop the fire truck.

"You can teach a dog to sit, stay, shake hands, but when you're teaching it to do 'stop, drop and roll,' ... those are not your standard dog tricks, so it takes a lot longer to do," he says.

Last year, Wilson bumped into one of the students that he and Sparky No. 1 had taught years ago. She's a mom now.

"It really made me feel good that (the program has) worked so well. We basically altered the fire safety behavior of a generation," Wilson says.