Kootenai County commissioners recess meeting after two firefighters killed, third fighting for life

Kootenai County commissioners recessed their July 1, 2025, status-update meeting at the start of the session after Chair Metari announced two firefighters had been killed and a third was still fighting for his life.

The meeting began at 10 a.m. with Commissioners Eberlein, Duncan and Metari in attendance. After calling the meeting to order and noting no changes to the agenda or public comment, Chair Metari made a public statement about the deaths and the county’s response: “As the world knows, we lost 2 of our finest firemen on Sunday and a third who is still fighting for his life. This has been an unbelievably difficult time for this community it's unheard of to have such a senseless act of evil occur here right now a procession for the 2 slain firefighters is leaving Spokane and in a show of support and honor to those who were taken from us. We are going to recess this meeting until 1PM and I want to thank you for your support and understanding as this community continues to process this horrible event and so I move that we enter into a recess until 1PM.”

A motion to recess until 1 p.m. was made following that statement, a second was recorded, and the commissioners voted unanimously to recess. Commissioner Eberlein voted “Aye.” Commissioner Duncan voted “Aye.” Chair Metari voted “Aye.” The meeting was recessed to allow the community and officials to observe the procession and to process the event; commissioners planned to reconvene at 1 p.m.

No ordinances, appointments, contracts or other formal business were recorded as being decided before the recess. The statement and the recess were made at the start of the scheduled status-update meeting, which had been convened at 10 a.m.