Ore. Firefighters Ambushed by Gunman at House Fire

The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore.

Five local firefighters narrowly avoided tragedy early Wednesday morning when they drove into a Springfield neighborhood to put out a house fire, only to come under gunfire from a shotgun-wielding assailant.

All five sustained superficial wounds from shotgun pellet blasts. The gunman, Lance Taylor Jacobs, killed himself minutes later as Eugene and Springfield police officers closed in. None of the firefighters was seriously injured, and all returned to extinguish the fire as soon as the scene was safe, Eugene Springfield Fire officials say.

But already the incident has rippled through Lane County's firefighting community and far beyond.

"This is just a testament that, with the size of our community growing, we now have to face not only (fire) as a hazard ... but now we have threats of violence as part of the hazards," Eugene Springfield Fire Chief Joe Zaludek said, standing across Oakdale Avenue from the fire scene Wednesday afternoon. "We'll be looking at this very carefully. We'll be meeting with our safety committees and with our respective work groups to make sure we have everything we can to make sure they have the safest work environment to work in."

Local and state officials say the incident could lead fire departments to reconsider training protocols. But it's too soon to know just what might change, if anything, following the events in Springfield.

"We're just focused on their welfare," said Karl Koenig, president of the Oregon State Firefighters Council and a station captain with Clackamas Fire District No. 1, southeast of Portland.

The firefighters council brought in a peer support team from Colorado on Thursday to meet with the Eugene Springfield Fire crew as they work through the trauma of being ambushed by a gunman while on the job.

"I'm sure we'll have robust talks about training, to make sure we're amply prepared," Koenig said. But, he added, "You can't plan for all eventualities."

Media reports around the country are full of stories of firefighters encountering active crime scenes.

But the situation the five local firefighters encountered—where a fire seems to have been started to lure firefighters into an ambush—appears to be extremely rare. Eugene Springfield Fire officials said it's likely Jacobs set fire to his own home, with flames spreading to neighboring houses after firefighters retreated in the face of gunfire.

"I can count on one hand in my 30 years in the public safety system that I've heard that happen in the country," said Eriks Gabliks, director of the Oregon Department of Public Safety, Standards and Training.

Gabliks said he's heard discussion from the public since the attack about equipping firefighters with bulletproof vests. But he noted that firefighters typically wear or carry 75 to 100 pounds of gear at a fire scene.

"Now on top of that you're going to expect someone to wear a bulletproof vest? It's just not practical," he said. Instead, local fire departments likely will stress situational awareness.

"On every emergency incident, even a nonemergency incident, there has to be an awareness of scene," Gabliks said. "You're constantly assessing your environment to make sure what you're doing is safe and the scene is safe."

Eugene Springfield Fire officials said the five firefighters did just what they needed to in the situation, taking cover and retreating until police could arrive at the scene.

The entire incident—from the initial 911 call about the house fire to the self-inflicted gunshot wound that killed Jacobs—unfolded over just 13 minutes. But in that time, Jacobs repeatedly fired his semiautomatic 12-gauge shotgun at the five firefighters. He also was carrying a handgun.

"For those guys, in an event they were not trained to experience, were not trained to be shot at, they all went back," said Mike Caven, president of Lane Professional Fire Fighters -- IAFF Local 851, and a captain and paramedic with Eugene's fire training division. "Overall, they performed very well. The fact is the minute they were cleared to go back and fight fire, they did their job without hesitation."

Caven said it's still too soon to know if the incident will lead to policy changes. The five firefighters arrived to such an uncommon and dangerous scene, he said, that it's difficult to determine what, if anything, could have been done differently.

"They were under fire, and they had no idea. You can hear (gunshots), but a structure fire is loud, and fully involved fire is incredibly loud," said Caven, who has heard the audio recordings of the "Code 3" assistance call firefighters made to police and emergency responders.

"It's not uncommon for ammunition to be exploding and any number of things to be popping where firefighters can be hit by flying debris," he said. "For them, they had no idea for the first several seconds, if not a minute or more, that that was actually someone shooting at them."

With the incident now several days in the past, Gabliks said the likeliest near-term outcome is that fire departments will surely incorporate the Springfield event into their own training.

"I can guarantee you every fire department in the state will talk about this call, and then talk about scene awareness and really putting an emphasis on looking around," Gabliks said. "Don't get focused on one thing. We preach scene safety at a pretty high level. It's a tenet we follow as paramedics and firefighters, and frankly, if we need to become hypervigilant, we will."