Call for help goes terribly wrong, Firefighter killed

[DaveTN]

This is one of the risks first responders deal with.
Prayers for the Fireman.
 

When they arrived on the scene, the person inside was unresponsive, so they decided to force entry, he said. As that was happening, the person inside fired several rounds, striking two firefighters and the person who had initially made the call for a welfare check.

Stawinski said that once officers got into the home, the gunfire stopped. He said no officers fired weapons.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/1-maryland-firefighter-dead-another-injured-after-shooting/ar-BBrOTvm?ocid=spartanntp

[BigK]

I try not to jump to conclusions after the kind of poor reporting MSN does, so help me understand:

 

Was the unresponsive person the one who later fired shots?

Did the responders identify themselves or did the the shooter assume they were burglars?

Was the person shooting maliciously or had mental/emotional issues?

 

Regardless of the missing facts I'm just curious about, I hate to hear stories like this. First responders of any kind have a tough enough job as it is when they AREN'T getting shot at. 

[DaveTN]

I try not to jump to conclusions after the kind of poor reporting MSN does, so help me understand:
 
Was the unresponsive person the one who later fired shots?
Did the responders identify themselves or did the the shooter assume they were burglars?
Was the person shooting maliciously or had mental/emotional issues?
 
Regardless of the missing facts I'm just curious about, I hate to hear stories like this. First responders of any kind have a tough enough job as it is when they AREN'T getting shot at.

Your guess is as good as mine. I assume because they say he was unresponsive; they were yelling and trying to get his attention. My experience from watching Firefighters make entry is that they are yelling “FIRE DEPARTMENT” when they are forcing entry. Now whether they are calling “unresponsive” as they saw him through a window or something and he was unresponsive, or unresponsive as in they didn’t know if he was there or not is not clear.

I’ve had to request from Command to force entry on a few “check on the welfare” cases; we usually left the entry to the Fire Depart as they have the tools for it. In the cases I was involved in we either had a dead body or some having a medical emergency that would have died had we left. We required family members or some pretty good information that the person needed help or was dead.

Firemen aren’t cops, they aren’t trying to arrest anyone and they aren’t trying to move in fast. I just can’t imagine them not identifying themselves as they were making entry. But I guess anything could happen.

[BigK]

Naturally, it doesn't really matter how it went down. I was just being overly curious. Tragic event.

 

Makes me glad I have the kind of job where the most dangerous thing that I encounter at work is taking the last cup of coffee in the break room and the next person in line getting mad because they have to wait for one to brew.

[Wicked1911]

My cousin knows them both, he works in the same firhouse. So sad, the one that died left behind a two year old girl.