Two firefighters were shot dead and a third wounded on an Idaho mountain when they were ambushed by a man who set the fire to lure them to the area, the local sheriff says.

The gunman suspected of fatally ambushing firefighters responding to a blaze in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, on Sunday has been identified as a 20-year-old man who once wanted to be a firefighter, according to law enforcement officials.

The sniper, 20-year-old Wess Roley, who opened fire on the first responders after they asked him to move his car, officials say, had ties to California