Idaho Briefs

Boy dies in vehicle

SPIRIT LAKE - A 3-year-old boy died Thursday after apparently becoming trapped inside an unattended vehicle parked at his home.

"Heat exposure is suspected as the primary contributing factor in this tragic death," Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler said on Thursday night.

Bonner EMS personnel were summoned to the home in the 100 block of Walden Lane at 12:45 p.m., according to an EMS call log.

Wheeler said the child's mother and her boyfriend were asleep inside the home when the boy went outside to play with the two dogs.

"He got into the vehicle with the dogs and apparently closed the door behind him," said Wheeler.

The mother found her child inside the vehicle and attempted life-saving measures, but the boy could not be revived. The two dogs also perished in the vehicle, Wheeler said.

"The case remains under investigation pending the outcome of the autopsy and other details of the case," said Wheeler, who called the incident "gut-wrenching."

It was not immediately clear how long the child was in the vehicle before being discovered by his mother.

Suspicious device an e-cig

Sheriff's deputies investigated the report of a suspicious device Thursday at the intersection of Fourth Street and Hanley Avenue in Dalton Gardens.

According to the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office, a city employee was spraying weeds when he located what he believed was some sort of a pipe bomb. Deputies arrived on scene and confirmed the device as being of a suspicious nature.

The Spokane Bomb Squad arrived on scene around 4 p.m. and deemed the device non-explosive. The device turned out to be a broken electronic cigarette.

Traffic in the area was diverted for about two hours.

Firefighter dies after training

BOISE (AP) - Federal officials say a wildland firefighter has died after a physical training exercise.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management says 33-year-old Terry Sonner of Hammett died Wednesday morning after collapsing.

Agency spokeswoman Jessica Gardetto says attempts by crewmembers to revive Sonner failed. The cause of death hasn't been determined.

Sonner began firefighting in 2001 and advanced to become the fire operations supervisor of the Hammett Guard Station Engine Crew in Hammett, about 60 miles southeast of Boise.

Gardetto declined to release the type of training the crew was doing when Sonner collapsed.

She says the BLM has appointed a team to look into the circumstances of Sonner's death.