By Karina Tsui, Cindy VonQuednow, Mark Morales

(CNN) — What began as a routine response to a brush fire on northern Idaho’s Canfield Mountain turned deadly Sunday after firefighters reported someone shooting at them while they battled the flames.

The gunman is believed to have started the fire so he could target the responding firefighters, officials said. Two firefighters were killed, and another was seriously injured.

“This was a total ambush. These firefighters did not have a chance,” Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said at a news conference Sunday night.

The attack prompted a massive emergency response and hourslong search for what was then an unknown number of shooters. The shots continued after law enforcement showed up.

Authorities later identified a single suspect as 20-year-old Wess Roley, a law enforcement official said.

Here’s what else we know about the targeted attack:

How the shooting unfolded

The sheriff’s office received a call around 1:21 p.m. reporting a fire on the east side of Canfield Mountain in the city of Coeur d’Alene, Norris said.

At roughly 2 p.m., firefighters deployed to the scene reported they were being shot at on the mountain, prompting law enforcement agencies to assist them while the fire continued to burn.

“Send law enforcement right now, there’s an active shooter zone. They’re shot,” one firefighter was heard telling dispatch. “BC three is down. BC one is down. Everybody shot. Up here, law enforcement code three now up here.”

For the next 90 minutes, officers from various agencies, including the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, Idaho State Police and Coeur d’Alene Police Department, converged on the scene and were caught in an exchange of fire with what seemed like bullets from multiple directions, Norris said.

“We are actively taking sniper fire as we speak,” the sheriff said Sunday.

At the time, the sheriff told reporters that whoever was shooting seemed to be using “modern-day sporting rifles.”

“I’m hoping that somebody has a clear shot and is able to neutralize because they are not, at this point in time, showing any evidence of wanting to surrender,” he said.

Kootenai County Emergency Management issued a shelter-in-place order and asked residents to avoid the area.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little urged people to stay away to allow law enforcement and firefighters to do their work.

“Multiple heroic firefighters were attacked today while responding to a fire in North Idaho,” Little said in a post on X. “This is a heinous direct assault on our brave firefighters. I ask all Idahoans to pray for them and their families as we wait to learn more. Teresa and I are heartbroken.”

How the suspect’s body was located

About 300 law enforcement officials ended up taking part in the response to the attack, including the Idaho National Guard and the FBI. Two helicopters with law enforcement snipers were also deployed to assist in the manhunt, Norris said.

Around 7:40 p.m., a SWAT team located a “deceased male” on Canfield Mountain after officials traced a cell phone signal picked up earlier to the location. A firearm was found nearby, Norris said.

“We have one dead shooter,” Norris said at a Sunday evening news conference. “There is no threat to the community at this time.”

Authorities believe the man was the only shooter “based on the trajectory and based on the type of weapons that this individual had that we could recover,” the sheriff said.

Norris said the fire was “rapidly approaching” the scene where the body was found, forcing officers to “scoop everything up” quickly. Norris acknowledged they couldn’t “preserve the scene like traditionally we would like to,” but “we had to do what we had to do to preserve the body.”

Officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect during the standoff, the sheriff said. Authorities have not said how the gunman died.

Two firefighters killed

A firefighter from the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department and another from Kootenai County were killed in the shooting, Norris said late Sunday. A third who was injured was out of surgery but was “fighting for his life” as of Sunday evening, the sheriff said.

Authorities have not released the names of the victims.

“We lost two outstanding professionals of the highest quality,” Kootenai County Commissioner Bruce Mattare told reporters, calling the shooting “senseless and tragic beyond words.”

“Their families need support,” Norris said.

The investigation

Authorities are planning to return to where the shooter’s body was found for additional searches “once the fire threat diminishes.” They are so far not releasing information on the weapon found with the gunman.

“We don’t know if there are more weapons up there that he had. There is a belief that he ran and shot,” the sheriff said. “There’s a likelihood that when we are able to enter the scene again tomorrow, without the threat of fire, that we’ll find other weapons that were placed.”

The scene where the dead suspect was found is “contained,” Norris said.

Attack delayed response to the fire

Efforts to contain the fire were delayed while the suspect was at large, Norris said, adding that no structures were lost.

Now called the Nettleton Gulch Fire, the blaze has spread to 15 to 20 acres, “with numerous snags and steep terrain,” the Idaho Department of Lands said in a statement Sunday night.

Aircraft, heavy equipment, water tankers, engines, firefighting crews and a specialized incident management team have been ordered and are expected to begin fighting the fire Monday, the department said.

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