Fire-rescue experts are evaluating additional safety measures in the wake of the June 29 ambush during a fire call that left two firefighters dead and one injured in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Yet as the public chimes in with solutions, first responders warn that some ideas could unintentionally make firefighters’ jobs more difficult. Plus, adding stress to a firefighter’s job can bring with it a second wave of complications and dangers, experts told Straight Arrow News.
Immediate public response centered around mental health and guns: While some organizations, such as Everytown for Gun Safety, criticized Idaho’s gun laws and the state’s high rate of gun violence, others proposed arming firefighters and allowing them to launch gun training academies.
In 2023, Harrisonburg, Virginia, began outfitting its firefighters with body armor as part of protocol. Members of the Harrisonburg fire and police departments also engaged in active shooter and firearms training in 2022, a practice that continued into 2025.
However, standardizing the use of firearms and body armor in fire departments presents its own challenges.
Should firefighters wear body armor?
Myke Cole, a threat intelligence analyst and war historian who also serves as a volunteer firefighter, told SAN that adding weapons to routine fire-rescue gear could escalate conflicts and increase physical stress.
“The blade itself incites violence,” Cole said, quoting from Homer’s “The Odyssey.”
He said that the presence of firearms at fire-rescue scenes could potentially “vastly increase” violence rather than prevent it. He added that while body armor might seem like a good idea, it also poses challenges.
“The problem with body armor is heat stress,” said Cole.
For body armor to be effective against sniper attacks, Cole said firefighters would need the thickest, heaviest and most durable chest plates available on the market. Fire-rescue officials are concerned this could increase the risks of heat stroke and heart strain to firefighters who already wear a lot of protective gear in the extreme temperatures of fires.
Adding more physical stress to a firefighter’s response can easily prove deadlier than the risk of being attacked. According to a 2024 report by the National Fire Protection Association, 30 firefighters have been killed by gun violence in the line of duty since 1990, accounting for 2% of all fire-rescue deaths during that time. Overexertion is a far more pervasive cause of concern: In 2024, 42 firefighters died of stress or overexertion in the line of duty, accounting for 58% of on-duty deaths in 2024.
What kinds of existing technology can help firefighters stay safe?
The answer doesn’t have to lie in buying more gear, Cole said. Rather, fire departments can use technology they already have in a different tactical way. For instance, dispatchers can use drones to scout an area, then send safety notifications to firefighters’ iPads, which most departments already use for daily operations.
“The very first thing you’re supposed to do on a scene is a 360 — size up your job before you go to work,” Cole said.
Many firefighting agencies have standardized 360s as a safety measure before heading to a fire scene, to check for risks such as active shooters, suspicious activity or other situation-specific problems. Sometimes these checks are skipped when there aren’t enough team members to complete them in a timely manner.
Beyond practical steps, Cole urges greater emphasis on de-escalation training, which first-response analysts say is “limited” in their line of work. A poll earlier this year found only 6% of firefighters report they have received formal de-escalation training from their departments.
“A lot of this violence erupts when people are stressed out,” Cole said. “Firefighters need to learn how to be in a relationship with someone in extreme suffering.”
As departments around the country look for lessons from the Idaho event, Cole said he hopes they zero in on increased training around mental health, which he said is “desperately” needed in the field.
Can focusing on mental health help keep firefighters safe?
Prevention strategies are often clearer in hindsight. But former Coeur d’Alene first responder David Faller said it is important to consider how surprised firefighters were by the “unprecedented” attack.
“These firefighters did exactly what they are expected to do during a fire,” Faller said, adding that the Coeur d’Alene firefighters received no warning signals alerting them to a possible ambush.
Given the rarity of shooters targeting firefighters, Faller said it would be easier for a driver to prepare beforehand for a “head-on collision with a drunk driver,” which claims more than 8,000 American lives a year.
“The only real thing we can do is send law enforcement on scene,” Faller told SAN, adding that dispatching officers to every scene could reduce efficiency. He said firefighters in Coeur d’Alene have, for now, increased their awareness of possible attacks and requested a police presence when responding to wildfires. However, Faller cautioned that hypervigilance for future gun threats would be cost-prohibitive.
While fire-rescue teams note the value in police escorts to fire-rescue scenes in some situations, Faller said the issue in the Coeur d’Alene case was more of a societal problem. He emphasized the need for greater mental health awareness.
“The betrayal of this individual shooting firefighters is incomprehensible,” said Jeff Dill, a 35-year fire service veteran and spokesperson for the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance, a nonprofit that develops and implements strategies for improving firefighters’ mental health care.
Dill said that one great risk to firefighters from the fallout of the Coeur d’Alene shooting is moral injury — a mental health condition the National Center for PTSD describes as deep psychological pain from “traumatic or unusually stressful circumstances.”
