Jacksonville firefighters respond to Landing shooting, after conducting training nearby

Jacksonville, FL — It started as a quiet day, and they decided to use that to get some training in. But things changed quickly.

Jacksonville Fire Station 1 has posted on Facebook about their response to the mass shooting at the Jacksonville Landing, saying it started as a normal Sunday, with not much taking place. To take advantage of their downtime, firefighters decided to conduct an elevator training at a parking garage on Hogan Street.

When they completed the training, the firefighters were standing around talking, when they suddenly saw people run from the Landing.

“This was an odd sight to all of us and quite perplexing,” the Facebook post says.

Then perplexing sites, led to immediate action, when someone came up to the group and said he had been shot.

“At that point, training, experience, and instinct take over. A few of us tended to the injured guy who approached us, and the rest of us formed a team and moved cautiously across the street to the restaurant this guy came from. Our active shooting training told us the scene needed to be cleared by JSO before we were to enter, fortunately, JSO was quick to act on this day,” the post says.

The post says some of the firefighters went inside, even though the scene was still active, and started triaging patients.

“This was a scene that none of us will soon forget, and probably just too graphic to put the details out on social media,” the post says.

The team of firefighters says they are proud of how they and the department overall responded.

“We are a Station full of tradition, we laugh together, we play together, and today we went as deep into the trenches together as we probably can. We go together and we leave together. 1 team, 1 family,” the post says.

In all, JSO says a gunman killed two people and shot nine others, before killing himself. Two other people were also hurt in the incident, suffering non-gunshot related injuries.