Two fire fighters shot dead in Idaho ambush – police
Two U.S fire fighters have been killed and a third wounded after a man intentionally started a fire and began shooting at first responders in a “total ambush” which lasted several hours, authorities said.
The gunman, who investigators said acted alone, began shooting after crews responded to a fire at Canfield Mountain, just north of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on Sunday afternoon.
Law enforcement officers and fire fighters came under sniper fire during the incident and a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team later “located a deceased male” close to where the attack took place.
The fire grew to 20 acres after it was first reported and continued to burn into Sunday night, Sheriff Bob Norris said.
“We do believe that the suspect started the fire,” Norris told a late night news conference.
“This was a total ambush. These fire fighters did not have a chance.
“We did lose a Coeur d’Alene fire fighter, and we did lose a fire fighter from the Kootenai County Fire and Rescue.”
A third was “fighting for his life, but is in stable condition”, he said.
Fire fighters received the first report of a fire in the mountainside community at around 13:21 PST (20:21 GMT) and reports that they were being shot at emerged about 40 minutes later, Norris said.
More than 300 law enforcement officers from the city, country, state and federal levels responded to the scene of the shooting, including two helicopters with snipers on board.
Norris said the shooter used a high-powered sporting rifle to fire rapidly at first responders, with officers initially unsure of the number of perpetrators involved.
After an hour-long barrage of gunfire, the suspect was found using mobile phone location information. It was unclear whether the suspect had killed himself or been hit by an officer, Norris said.
Authorities would not provide more details on weapons recovered, but said that officers would likely find more guns at the scene on Monday, once the fire was extinguished.
The motive for the shooting was not known and Norris did not provide any details on the suspect.
The two fire fighters killed and the third wounded have not been identified.
A shelter-in-place notice – which alerts people to stay inside their properties or in their current locations during an emergency, rather than evacuating to a different area – was lifted some seven hours later.
Canfield Mountain is an area popular with hikers about 260 miles (420 km) east of Seattle.
Norris said that a preliminary investigation had determined that there was only one gunman, after it was earlier thought that there could have been as many as four.
He said the gunman appeared to have run while shooting and may have stashed weapons in different places.
Helicopters with heat-seeking technology flew over the area in an attempt to pinpoint the suspect, but teams experienced difficulty because of smoke from the wildfire which was still burning, according to CBS News, the BBC’s U.S partner. —BBC
