A US man who started a wildfire and then shot dead two firefighters and wounded another in northern Idaho was a 20-year-old transient who attacked the first responders after they asked him to move his vehicle.

Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris has offered new details about Sunday’s confrontation at Canfield Mountain, just north of Coeur d’Alene, a popular recreation area.

He said Wess Roley was living out of his vehicle, had once aspired to be a firefighter and had only a handful of minor contacts with area police.

“We have not been able to find a manifesto,” Norris said on Monday (US time), adding a motive was still unknown.

Norris said families of the victims were “in shock – absolutely. They’re in shock and they’re still processing it”.

Roley had set a fire using flint, and the firefighters who rushed to the scene instead found themselves in an unexpected shootout.

They took cover behind fire trucks, but two died and a third was wounded during a barrage of gunfire over several hours.

“There was an interaction with the firefighters,” Norris said.

“It has something to do with his vehicle being parked where it was.”

Roley later killed himself, the sheriff said.

He had ties to California and Arizona and was living in Idaho “for the better part of 2024”, Norris said.

“But as far as when he got here, why he was here, why he chose this place – I don’t know.”

Two helicopters converged on the area on Sunday, armed with snipers ready to take out the suspect if needed. The FBI used his mobile phone data to track him and Norris ordered residents to shelter in place.

They eventually found Roley dead in the mountains, his firearm beside him.

Dale Roley, who lives about an hour away from Coeur d’Alene, told KXLY-TV that his grandson was an avid hiker who worked for a tree company and was interested in forestry.

Outpouring of support for the victims was swift in Coeur d’Alene, a city of 55,000 residents near the border with Washington.

Hours after the shooting, people gathered along Interstate 90 holding American flags to pay their respects as the two fallen firefighters’ bodies were taken to the medical examiner’s office in Spokane, Washington, about 56 kilometres away.

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