WEBSTER, N.Y. -- Authorities say four firefighters were shot, two of them killed while responding to a house fire in western New York.
Officials in the town of Webster tell local media outlets that someone shot at firefighters around 6 a.m. Monday when they arrived at the scene of the blaze just east of Rochester.
CNN reports that two responding firefighters are being treated for gunshot wounds. Two other firefighters were killed, but officials wouldn't elaborate on how they died.
A Webster fire official told ABC that the firefighters were shot at when they pulled up to a house in the 100 block of Lake Road. The crime scene is still active, but officials said there is no active shooter at this time. Officers exchanged gunfire with at least one gunman before the melee ended. No more details on the shootout are available.
Police secured the area by 10 a.m. and firefighters started combating the blaze, which spread to at least three houses, according to the Democrat and Chronicle. It's unclear whether any arrests have been made, or whether anyone was injured in the fire.
SWAT teams on scene have reportedly been evacuating a some nearby residents and taking them out of the neighborhood.
From the Associated Press:
"One or more shooters" fired at the firefighters after they arrived shortly after 5:30 a.m. at the blaze near the Lake Ontario shore, just east of Rochester, Town of Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering said.
There was no active shooter at the scene later Monday morning, according to Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn. The first Webster police officer who arrived on the scene exchanged gunfire with the shooter, Flynn said, but he had no other information on the shootout.
The West Webster Fire District received a report of a car and house on fire on Lake Road, on a narrow peninsula where Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario, Flynn said.
"When they got there, they stated to take on rounds and the initial responders were struck," the sheriff said.
The fire started in one home and spread to two others and a car, officials said.
The two wounded firefighters were in critical condition at a Rochester hospital, Flynn said.
Webster, a middle-class, lakeside suburb, now is the scene of violence linked to house fires for two Decembers in a row.
Last Dec. 7, authorities say, a 15-year-old boy doused his home with gasoline and set it ablaze, killing his father and two brothers, 16 and 12. His mother and 13-year-old sister escaped with injuries. He is being prosecuted as an adult.
