Meet Kai: The daring dog who sniffs out causes of fires

But two-year-old Kai is not all about adorable pictures and messing about with his two other mates, Pep and Ellie.

The Belgian shepherd has a serious job to do - sniffing out the causes of fires across the West Midlands and attending some of the biggest blazes to rock the region.

And as part of his on-going training he is often taken out to tackle the obstacles at Baggeridge Country Park near Sedgley.

Kai has been qualified with West Midlands Fire Service for a year and been to more than 40 scenes across the Black Country, Staffordshire, Shropshire and Warwickshire. This included the large blaze at Stag Industrial Estate in Bilston last November.

His role is to assess the possibility of an arson attack, or to completely rule out such a cause, having been trained to find signs of flammable liquid.

Kai is the responsibility of dog handler Mat (corr) Dixon who is part of the West Midlands Fire Investigation Team and came from a rescue centre in Telford. Mat regularly shares Kai's exploits on Twitter, where more than 2,000 people follow him along with Pep, a German shorthaired pointer aged six and labrador springer spaniel Ellie, now 13.

Mat, aged 39, of Penn, Wolverhampton, said: "We tend to get called out to jobs of suspected arson or to rule arson out. We search the scene once the fire is out.

"He will pick up on those minute traces of flammable liquid that are left. Sometimes it may not be possible for us to detect with a human nose."

Often some of the fire scenes can have uneven floors due to the effects of fire and using the likes of the tyre trail at Baggeridge helps to prepare for such scenarios.

Kai stays with father-of-two Mat and his family along with Pep and Ellie.

Ellie has since retired from her duties but is still taken out around Baggeridge with the other two dogs. Pep has been part of the fire investigation team for more than four years.

But it is Kai who is the most lively. Mat said: "He is the most out going out the three, he is the most enthusiastic."

To follow their exploits follow @WMFireDogs on Twitter.