One of two firefighters killed in an Idaho ambush last weekend was a graduate of Neenah High School.
A Neenah school spokesman said Frank Harwood graduated in 2001.
Watch: Neenah native one of two firefighters killed in Idaho ambush:
Harwood, 42, was shot and killed on June 29 responding to a wildfire near Coeur d’Alene in Idaho. Battalion Chief John Morrison, 52, was also killed.
Harwood is survived by his wife and two children.
Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said firefighters first responded to an early afternoon report of a brush fire at Canfield Mountain, a popular and scenic hiking and biking area near the outskirts of town. But once the firefighters arrived, someone began shooting at them.
The fire was set to lure the firefighters into an ambush, Norris said.
“These firefighters did not have a chance,” he said.
Law enforcement officials responded, locking down the neighborhoods near the hiking area and trying to find the shooter in hilly terrain that had plenty of cover, with thick brush and trees and smoke from the fire nearby.
Over the next few hours, it wasn't clear if hikers or other recreationists were stuck on the mountain, or if any civilians had been injured in the shooting, Norris said. What was clear was the danger the firefighters and responding law enforcement faced. They exchanged gunfire with the shooter, he said.
“We don’t know how many suspects are up there, and we don’t know how many casualties there are,” Norris told reporters at a Sunday afternoon news conference. “We are actively taking sniper fire as we speak.”
A spokesperson with Kootenai Health later confirmed that three patients were transported to the hospital — two were dead by the time they arrived and a third was injured.
A procession of fire and law enforcement vehicles accompanied the bodies of the fallen firefighters as they were taken from the hospital in Coeur d'Alene to the medical examiner's office in Spokane, Washington, a neighboring city just across the state line.
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