Attack on firefighters caught on radio

Audio has been released of the shooting of New York firefighters in the US. Fox News reports.

CHILLING audio has emerged of the gunman who ambushed four volunteer firefighters responding to a house fire outside Rochester, New York before killing himself.

Emergency radio communications capture someone saying he "could see the muzzle flash coming at me" as a gunman ambushed firefighters responding to a blaze in Lake Ontario he had set to trap them.

In pictures: Horror attack

A gunman has shot dead two firefighters when he ambushed them at the scene of a housefire in a suburb of Rochester, New York.

The audio draws a chilling picture of the attack police say William Spengler carried out Friday morning in the Lake Ontario community of Webster. Spengler ambushed the four volunteer firefighters responding to an intense pre-dawn house fire killing two before ending up dead himself, authorities said.

The gunman fired at the firefighters when they arrived shortly after 5.30am at the blaze near the Lake Ontario shore in Webster, town police chief Gerald Pickering said.

Lieutenant Michael Chiapperini, who volunteered as a firefighter in his spare time, was one of two firefighters killed in a Christmas Eve ambush in New York state.

The audio posted on the website RadioReference.com has someone reporting "firefighters are down" and saying "got to be rifle or shotgun."

The first Webster police officer who arrived chased the suspect and exchanged gunfire with him, authorities said. Police used an armoured vehicle to evacuate more than 30 nearby residents.

Firefighters gather around a burning house after they were let back into the area follwoing the fatal shooting. Picture: AP/Democrat & Chronicle, Jamie Germano

"It does appear it was a trap" for the first responders to the fire, Mr Pickering said at a news conference.

Police in New York state say the  62-year-old gunman who ambushed the firefighters had served 17 years for manslaughter in the death of his grandmother.

This image taken from video provided by WHAM13-TV, shows homes on fire in Webster, where a gunman ambushed four volunteer firefighters responding to a house fire.

Mr Pickering said Spengler was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.

Police don't know a motive yet nor if anyone died in the fire itself.

A screen grab from WHAM-TV's live coverage of the scene in Webster, New York.

One of the dead firefighters was also a town police lieutenant; it wasn't clear whether he returned fire. An off-duty police officer who was driving by was injured by shrapnel, Mr Pickering said.

"These people get up in the middle of the night to go put out fires; they don't expect to be shot and killed," Mr Pickering said.

Firefighters battle a blaze after they were let back onto the site outside Rochester. Picture: AP/Democrat & Chronicle, Jamie Germano

The fire started in one home and spread to two others and a car, officials said. The gunfire initially kept firefighters from battling the blazes. Police say four homes were destroyed and four damaged.

The West Webster Fire District learned of the fire early on Monday after a report of a car and house on fire on Lake Road, on a narrow peninsula where Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario, Monroe county sheriff Patrick O'Flynn said.

The fire appeared from a distance as a pulsating ball of flame glowing against the early morning sky, flames licking into treetops and reflecting on the water, with huge bursts of smoke billowing away in a brisk wind.

Two of the firefighters arrived on a fire engine and two in their own vehicles, Mr Pickering said. After the gunman fired, one of the wounded men managed to flee, but the other three couldn't because of flying gunfire.

A police armoured vehicle was used to recover two of the men, and eventually it evacuated 33 people from nearby homes, the police chief said.

The dead men were identified as Police Lt. Michael Chiapperini, 43, the Webster Police Department's public information officer; and Tomasz Kaczowka, also a 911 dispatcher, whose age was not released.

Mr Pickering described Chiapperini as a "lifetime firefighter" with nearly 20 years with the department, and called Kaczowka a "tremendous young man."

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The two wounded firefighters, Joseph Hofsetter and Theodore Scardino, were in a guarded condition in the intensive care unit at Strong Memorial Hospital, authorities said. Both were awake and alert and are expected to recover.

Mr Hofsetter, also a full-timer with the Rochester Fire Department, was hit once in the pelvis, and the bullet lodged in his spine, authorities said. Mr Scardino was hit in the chest and knee.

Yesterday's shooting and fires were in a neighbourhood of seasonal and year-round homes set close together across the road from the lakeshore. The area is popular with recreational boaters but is normally quiet this time of year.

"We have very few calls for service in that location," Mr Pickering said. "Webster is a tremendous community. We are a safe community, and to have a tragedy befall us like this is just horrendous."

Mr O'Flynn lamented the violence, which comes on the heels of other shootings including the massacre of 20 students and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

"It's sad to see that that this is becoming more commonplace in communities across the nation," Mr O'Flynn said.

Webster, a middle-class suburb, has now been linked to house fire violence two Decembers in a row.

Last year on December 7, authorities say a 15-year-old boy doused his home with gasoline and set it ablaze, killing his father and two brothers, aged 16 and 12. His mother and 13-year-old sister escaped with injuries. He is being prosecuted as an adult.

Local newspaper, the Democrat and Chronicle, reports that the flag outside the West Webster Fire Department was lowered to half-staff at 10.45am. Fire district commissioners, Pat Morris and Billy Gross, described a sombre scene inside. 

"Each one of the firefighters is comforting each other," Mr Morris said. The Monroe County stress management team is working with the firefighters, the commissioners said, and local businesses are donating food.

"These firemen are part of our family. You go into a fire with these guys. To see them go down with something like this is totally unexpected. We are in shock," Mr Gross said, adding help was coming from all sides.

"Because of the shock and stress inside, you can't expect us to go and fight (another) fire," he added.

FBI spokeswoman Maureen Dempsey said the FBI was assisting law enforcement with whatever needs they had. "We have people on the scene. Members of our joint terrorism task force."

Webster is a middle-class, lakeside suburb. "I'm not aware of anything like this happening in Webster, obviously not a firefighter being fired upon," Webster fire marshal Rob Boutillier said.

Authorities remain on the scene evacuating residents. They are being searched by New York state police and other authorities before being taken to a bus.

Resident Michael Damico, whose son woke him up at 8am to tell him about the fire, was among those evacuated. He told the Democrat and Chronicle that "The whole strip's been evacuated. They're evacuating all of the houses and going through them," he said.

"We looked out the window and we saw the SWAT team and everyone around. Some people on this bus already watched their houses burn. They're not happy," Mr Damico said.

The debate about gun laws in America continues, in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings on December 14, which killed 26 people including 20 children.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is sticking to its stance on guns, calling for an armed guard in every school across America. National Rifle Association chief executive officer Wayne LaPierre said on Friday: "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

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