A Wisconsin firefighter was shot and seriously injured after a loaded gun inside a burning building was unloaded, officials said.
Justin Fredrickson, 35, is in the intensive care unit at Mayo Hospital in Eau Claire, where he has had three surgeries since the February 19 incident, the Cornell Area Fire Department said on Thursday in a Facebook post.
According to the department, Fredrickson responded to a fire in Willard County, about 195 miles west of Green Bay. He was operating a hose when the gun went off, said fire chief Dennis Klass on Tuesday in another post on Facebook.
“The loaded gun discharged due to the heat conditions caused by the fire, not by a person’s intentional actions,” he said.
The bullet went through an external wall and hit Fredrickson in the abdomen, according to authorities.
Paramedics took him to Ladysmith Hospital before taking him to Mayo, Klass said.
Assistant Chief Matt Boulding said on Thursday that Fredrickson, a 16-year veteran in the department, was “resting comfortably … in a good mood and on the road to recovery”.
The fire department said the Fredrickson family was accepting donations anywhere in Northwestern Bank under the title “Volunteer Firefighter Cornell (memo: Justin Fredrickson)”.
