MAPLEWOOD, Mo. (KMOX News)  -- Authorities are identifying the firefighter who was shot and killed this morning while answering an emergency call in Maplewood.  Click on the audio link below to get the latest update from KMOX's Brett Blume.

Our earlier story:

A gunman fired shots at police and firefighters on Monday, with reports saying three emergency workers were injured. Details of their injuries were not known, but the mood at Maplewood City Hall was somber, with people crying and hugging each other.

Several calls to emergency responders were not returned. St. Louis County Police spokeswoman Tracy Panus would say only that police would discuss the incident later at a news conference.

The incident apparently began with a report of a vehicle fire shortly before 6 a.m. in Maplewood, a suburban town just southwest of St. Louis. When firefighters arrived, someone began firing shots. Police responded and at least one officer was also reportedly struck. Several media reports said three emergency workers were shot, but it wasn't clear how many were firefighters and how many were police.

The injured were taken to two different hospitals, but officials at both, citing privacy laws, would not comment. In addition to the burning vehicle, a house across the street was on fire. The suspect was believed to be inside the house. Dozens of police officers from Maplewood and nearby communities surrounded the working class brick bungalow, rifles pointed at the home as smoke poured from it.

Because of the threat from the gunman, firefighters weren't immediately able to get close enough to put out either fire. A fire truck sprayed an arch of water from about a block away toward the home. Some residents living nearby were evacuated. At one point, an armored police truck went to the area and removed at least one firefighter. Television footage showed him emerging from the vehicle.

Janet Kinkelar, who lives nearby, said her dog, Sugar, awakened her. As she let the dog out, two armed police officers in her yard yelled, ``Get in! Get in!'' Later, officers pounded on doors in the neighborhood, telling people to evacuate immediately. Another neighbor, Joanna Bedford, was asleep when police arrived. ``They knocked on my door __ bam, bam!,'' she said. ``They said, 'Let's go. Go right now!'''

The incident was the latest of several high-profile crimes in the region this year. In February, a disgruntled resident of the suburban town of Kirkwood walked into a city council meeting and killed two police officers, two council members and the public works director before he was gunned down by police. The gunman, Charles ``Cookie'' Thornton had a long-running feud with the city over multiple code violations concerning his small contracting company.

In June, an Arkansas couple was beaten to death outside a hotel in Festus, Mo. Authorities suspect Nicholas Sheley killed six people in Illinois before killing the couple in Festus. He was captured a short time later in Granite City, Ill.

Last week, two people died inside Jamestown Mall in north St. Louis County. Police say S.A. Carson let the air out of his wife's tires, apparently so she could not get away, then went inside and shot her to death before turning the gun on himself. And on Saturday, 57-year-old Boris Shotekoff killed his wife and sister and brutally beat his brother-in-law before taking his own life, police said.