Joshua Hoston, a 18 -year -old veteran from the Coeur D’E Alene de Idaho Fire Department, recalls the moment when a routine call for forest fires became a mortal ambush that killed two fellow firefighters and wounded a third party.
“We left everything we had, we returned to the truck and ran again to the mountain,” said Hoston.
What initially looked like an ordinary report of a forest fire in the city of Northwest of Idaho quickly became chaos when the first responders were criticized, an attack that has shaken the United Fire Combat Community.
Hoston said he was called to Canfield Mountain on Sunday, June 29, and was helping to recover a UTV, a four -wheeled vehicle used to access tight land, when a call creaked on the radio: shots.
“The way it sounded, we knew it wasn’t a joke,” he said.
What he and others did not know at that time was that a man, now identified as Wess Roley, 20, supposedly intentionally burned the ambush that responds to firefighters.
Hoston said that a captain of the Fire District of Los Lagos del Norte quickly ordered the crews that were left in an area of staging, far from the shooting. He said he felt “helpless” not being able to hurry his colleagues to help, but acknowledged that the decision probably saved more lives.
“If we had all been there, we would have been trapped,” he said. “It would have been a battery of bodies.”
The Battalion Chiefs John Morrison and Frank J. Harwood were killed in the attack. Firefighter David Tysdal was injured and remains hospitalized as a stable condition after undergoing multiple surgeries.
“It was the worst imaginable 56 hours,” they told NBC News Coeur d’Airne Bomber and Captain Jeff Fletcher.
Fletcher was out of service that day and by mountain bike in near Sandpoint when he started receiving urgent calls. They told him that “two of my best friends” had been shot. He hastened to the Coeur D’A Alene fire station, then to the hospital, where he and another firefighter established a command post.
“Just to see the smoke plume of the forest fire really brought realities to what we were about to undertake,” he said in a phone call on Thursday. “I think everyone initially said: ‘How can this be happening? How can it be in our community?'”
Kootenai County Sheriff, Bob Norris, said the “firefighters did not have a chance” after Roley supposedly opened fire.
Norris said they received reports that Roley, who, according to his family, once dreamed of becoming a firefighter, shot the responders of a tree.
Roley was found dead on the mountain last Sunday of an alleged auto -inflicted bullet wound, authorities said. They also recovered a starter and a flint shotgun on the scene.
‘The most amazing person’
Fletcher said the days since the attack has been chaotic, leaving little time to process the tragedy.
“I would say that many of us are still in the trenches,” he said. “We are also trying to balance the duel for John and Frank and support Dave, and then also achieving shifts and making calls and trying to maintain our composure.”
Fletcher was excited by remembering his 23 -year -old friendship with Morrison, the head of the Battalion and the Tysdal firefighter, who began on his first day at work.
“Dave is the most surprising person,” he said through tears.
In the winter, Tysdal directs a Christmas tree farm.
“It included everyone in everything I was doing,” said Fletcher. “He is the most generous and pleasant person I have met.”
The authorities said in an update on Wednesday that Tysdal underwent a third surgery. He was taken from a fan and was talking, despite suffering severe trauma in the chest and spinal.
Morrison embodied “leadership in the field of fire that can never be replaced,” said Fletcher.
“In his position, when he appears to great incidents, he is basically calling the shots. There were never doubts in what was his strategy,” he said. “When you returned to the Fire House, he was the friendliest, most kind and fun guy you have ever met.”
Idaho Governor Brad Little said he was “disconsolate”, calling for an “atrocious direct assault on our brave firefighters.”
Hundreds of people gathered for a procession on Tuesday in honor of Morrison and Harwood.
A motive in the shooting is still clear. The authorities said that no manifesto has been found and that they still do not know why Roley was in the area. Norris, the Sheriff, said it seemed that he had been living outside his car.
The fire has burned around 23 acres and was 100% contained until Friday morning, said the department of Lands de Idaho in a Facebook publication.
Roley’s family could not be contacted to comment. They published a statement on Monday through their lawyer, Justin P. Whittenton, saying that “they do not understand why this happened or how this arose.”
Since the attack, support for the victims and the local firefighters community have arrived, said Ricky Walsh, vice president of the 7th district of the International Fire Association.
“We are the guardians of our sisters and brothers, and we will support each other and we overcome this event,” he said.
Tracy Rohr, 52, of Coeur D’A Alene, said that seeing the community has been “moving but tragically sad.”
“For me personally, I feel an overwhelming feeling of pride in the way our community has joined,” he said. “But also, I definitely feel that we are all lost. It’s tragic.”
