Two firefighters were killed and a third badly injured after they were shot at while responding to a wildfire near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on Sunday afternoon.
Firefighters responded to reports of a brush fire at Canfield Mountain, north of Coeur d’Alene, at around 1:30 p.m., at which point someone started shooting at them. A shelter-in-place order was lifted just before 8 p.m. Sunday night, after authorities identified a suspect, who was found dead. The names of the victims and the suspect have not yet been released.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]“We do believe that the suspect started the fire, and we do believe that it was an ambush and it was intentional,” Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said. “These firefighters did not have a chance.”
Here’s what we know so far about the shooting.
Brush fire believed to be an ambush
Authorities believe that the shooter started the fire in order to lure in the firefighters. Gunshots were reported around half an hour after firefighters arrived at the scene.
“Everybody’s shot up here,” first responders said over a dispatch according to the Associated Press. “Send law enforcement now.”
Law enforcement locked down the hiking area and nearby neighborhoods—marking a more than 17,000 sq. ft. containment area. It was not clear if any civilians were stuck on the mountain or had been injured, Norris said at an afternoon news conference.
Around 300 officers from multiple agencies, including the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, Spokane Police, Coeur d’Alene Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations, responded to the scene. Officers exchanged fire with the shooter in an hourslong standoff.
The fire—and the terrain—complicated the scene, with the fire smoke and the brush offering cover for the shooter. “We are actively taking sniper fire as we speak,” Norris said. “We don’t know how many suspects are up there, and we don’t know how many casualties there are.”
Law enforcement exchanged fire with the shooter in an hourslong standoff that ended in the suspect’s death. Norris said at an evening news conference that authorities believe there to have been one shooter.
The shelter-in-place order has since been lifted.
Two killed and one injured
Three victims were transported to Kootenai Health, though two were dead on arrival, according to hospital spokesperson Kim Anderson. One of the deceased was a firefighter from the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department and the other was a firefighter from Kootenai County Fire and Rescue.
The third firefighter was “badly injured” and “fighting for his life” after undergoing surgery, Norris said, but is in stable condition.
Suspect found dead
Police used cellphone data to trace the location of the shooter, identifying a cell signal at around 3:15 p.m. that had not moved for some time, Norris said at the evening conference. There, a tactical response team found a man lying dead with a weapon nearby, whom authorities believe was the shooter.
“There is no threat to the community at this time,” Norris said. “Based on the trajectory and based on the type of weapons that this individual had that we could recover, we believe only the one shooter.”
Because of the encroaching fire, authorities had to “scoop the body up,” Norris said. The scene was “compromised” as a result, he said, but “we had to do what we had to do to preserve the body.” The investigation will continue Monday morning after the fire is cleared and investigators can search the area, Norris said, adding that they believe they may find more weapons placed in the area.
Norris said the shooter used a rifle, but did not release details about the weapon while the investigation is ongoing. Investigators believe there was one shooter who moved around to shoot from different positions, he added. Authorities have not confirmed the suspect’s identity.
Fire continues burning
The fire, later named the Nettleton Gulch fire, was still burning past 10 p.m., according to the Idaho Department of Lands. Kootenai County Emergency Management cautioned residents to be prepared and ready in case it escalates.
“Crews will be there all night,” Norris said. Firefighting efforts were delayed till around 7:30 p.m. because of the threat of gunfire. The fire has scorched around 20 acres of land on the mountain, but no structures were lost, the department said.
The area around Canfield Mountain has been designated a no-fly zone by the sheriff’s office until further notice, including a prohibition on drones, the county’s emergency management services said.
First responders target of violence
It remains unclear why firefighters were targeted, though this isn’t the first time this year that first responders have been attacked.
Tulsa firefighter-medics were ambushed and shot at earlier this month while treating a victim in Oklahoma, Tulsa Fire Chief Michael Baker said on KOTV-News. In April, a firefighter-paramedic in Kansas City was stabbed to death in an ambulance. And in 2022, Seattle fire medic units reported being attacked on multiple occasions while responding to scenes or in an ambulance.
“This is a heinous direct assault on our brave firefighters,” Idaho Gov. Brad Little said on X after Sunday’s shooting.“The job’s not over,” Jason Pack, a retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent, told CNN. “Somebody’s still got to be around to fight the fires—and that’s the reality of every day, what the men and women who put their lives on the line for folks in America deal with. They have huge personal loss sometimes but just keep showing up, going to work, and doing their job, and what they’re trained to do.”
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