Mid-Missouri crews mourn loss of firefighters in Idaho ambush

Haley Swaino

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The ambush killing of two firefighters in Idaho on Sunday has left firefighters nationwide shaken.

While battling a blaze in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, two firefighters were killed and another was seriously injured. The gunman is believed to have started the fire to lure and target the responding firefighters, officials said.

Fire departments across Mid-Missouri have shared messages of grief since the incident.

“It is with profound sorrow that we join our profession in honoring those lost in Kootenai County, Idaho, at the Canfield Fire,” Columbia Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer says in a CFD post on Monday. “The murders were senseless and brutal.”

Schaeffer is the former Spokane Fire Chief (Washington) and told ABC 17 News he worked closely with the Idaho crew.

“It’s been tough,” Schaeffer said. I mean, it has been pretty surreal for me.”

Though separated geographically, he said he is still bonded to his firefighting brothers and sisters in Kootenai County.

“As it [ambush] was happening, I was getting pinged from folks at the scene and it’s tough when you can’t do anything about it,” Schaeffer said. “The men that were killed were exceptional human beings, good friends, and definitely very good firefighters and battalion chiefs.”

He said his heart goes out to those affected and the firefighters now working through the unimaginable.

“You hope that you never have to experience what Kootenai County is experiencing right now,” Schaeffer said. “But hope isn’t a strategy.”

He explained that no amount of training can truly prepare first responders for something like this.

“I don’t think anybody is ever expecting to go to a fire and encounter an active shooter, somebody that has purposely set up an area where they intend to kill you,” Schaeffer said. “And that’s what they were facing.”

For the past year, Schaffer said the city has been more pragmatic in planning because of incidents like this becoming a trend.

“Football games, street festivals, even parades, you’re seeing a much more unified command,” Schaeffer said. “Now we’re recognizing that there are risks that are nefarious.”

And some of those nefarious incidents have hit even closer to home.

“Like what we saw in Kansas City with a paramedic firefighter that was killed in the back of the ambulance trying to take care of somebody,” Schaeffer said. “Those type of incidents we are seeing in the data and unfortunately, it’s becoming a trend.”

“The complexity, the risks over our entire discipline have changed significantly in the last 10, 20 years,” Schaeffer said. “Certainly within the last couple. We’re seeing a lot more abuse and physical assault and attacks on first responders.”

Schaeffer said CFD has at least one captain present at every scene they respond to.

“Their responsibility is making sure that that crew goes home at the end of the day,” Schaeffer said. “She or he will be head on swivel all the time analyzing the risk based on experience, based on training, sometimes even based on guts.” Oftentimes we’ll have officers just say, ‘You know what, we’re not comfortable here.”

But to ensure that firefighter continue to make it back home each day, he said something needs to be done.

“Now the focus needs to be, how did we get here,” Schaeffer said. “How can we identify these problems before they happen and how can we go upstream? Is it mental health funding? Is it Medicare, Medicaid funding? What is it? And that’s where my mind is. Because the reality is that we can’t protect ourselves from every incident. We can’t. We just can’t.”

The Jefferson City Fire Department also shared its grief on social media Monday, saying “our hearts are heavy.”

The “tragic loss” was “an act of senseless violence,” JCFD says.

“We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Idaho as they navigate this unimaginable loss,” the post says. “Firefighters risk their lives every day to protect others — they should never have to fear being targeted for doing their job.”

The International Association of Fire Fighters is also standing in solidarity with Idahoans, calling Sunday’s incident “nothing short of horrific.”

“We mourn the loss of our two brothers, Coeur d’Alene Fire Department Battalion Chief and Local 710 member John Morrison, Jr., and Kootenai County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief and Local 2856 member Frank Harwood, and are keeping their families and loved ones in our prayers,” IAFF General President Edwards Kelly says in a press release. “Our thoughts are also with Local 710 Brother, Coeur d’Alene Fire Engineer Dave Tysdal, who was shot and remains hospitalized.”

Kelly says the IAFF ensuring first responders’ safety means holding people who make these sorts of attacks responsible.

“In no civilized nation should first responders be targets for violence,” Kelly says.

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