Idaho firefighters reeling after ambush attack that left two colleagues dead

Firefighters in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, are reeling after an ambush attack that left two of their own dead and one hospitalized.

Joshua Hoston, an 18-year veteran of Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Fire Department, remembers the moment a routine wildfire call turned into a deadly ambush that killed two fellow firefighters and wounded a third.

“We dropped everything we had, hopped back in the truck, and went racing back up to the mountain,” Hoston said.

What initially seemed like an ordinary report of a wildfire in the northwest Idaho city quickly devolved into chaos as first responders came under fire — an attack that has shaken the close-knit firefighting community.

Hoston said he was called to Canfield Mountain on Sunday, June 29, and was assisting with retrieving a UTV, a four-wheeled vehicle used to access tight terrain, when a call crackled over the radio: shots fired.

“The way it sounded, we knew it wasn’t a joke,” he said.