Stolen ambulance allegedly driven into Idaho DHS office building in attempted arson attack

State and national authorities are investigating aft a fishy allegedly stole an ambulance, loaded up staged state cans and plowed the exigency conveyance into a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bureau successful Idaho — successful what investigators judge was an attempted arson attack.

Just aft 11 p.m. Wednesday, an ambulance was stolen from a bay astatine St. Luke's West hospital. 

The suspect, who has not yet been identified, drove the ambulance done the parking batch and retrieved state cans that were staged successful adjacent vegetation, according to Meridian Police Chief Tracy Basterrechea.

The fishy past drove the ambulance straight into the North Portico building, which houses DHS offices, Basterrechea said.

Tracy Basterrechea, Meridian, Idaho constabulary chief, during a property league connected Thursday, February 19, 2026. (KBOI)

LA MAN SEEN THROWING MOLOTOV COCKTAIL INTO FEDERAL BUILDING, FEDS SAY

Investigators judge the fishy poured an accelerant wrong and astir the extracurricular of the ambulance. 

However, the fishy was incapable to ignite the accelerant earlier being frightened disconnected by responding agencies, according to Basterrechea.

"We privation to stress that this was a superior transgression act," Basterrechea said. "The theft and demolition of an exigency conveyance not lone created a hazard to responding personnel, but it besides temporarily removed a captious aesculapian assets from the community."

Meridian Police Department successful Meridian, Idaho. (Google Maps)

THE FAR-LEFT NETWORK THAT HELPED PUT ALEX PRETTI IN HARM'S WAY, THEN MADE HIM A MARTYR

He added "there has been a batch of rhetoric surrounding the Department of Homeland Security leasing bureau abstraction astatine this location."

"Comments connected societal media, specified arsenic 'property harm isn't violence,' is perfectly false," Basterrechea continued. "This was perfectly an enactment of violence, and if the fishy had not been interrupted, determination is nary uncertainty this gathering would person been burned, putting the lives of archetypal responders and others astatine risk."

Officials said that though the fishy has not been identified oregon located, determination is nary denotation of an ongoing menace to the broader community.

The Meridian Police Department is starring the probe successful coordination with the FBI, ATF, DHS, Idaho State Police and different determination instrumentality enforcement partners.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

"Any accusation that we judge would hinder our probe volition not beryllium released astatine immoderate time," Basterrechea said. "We privation to marque definite that this probe is arsenic cleanable arsenic imaginable and that we bring the radical liable to justice."

DHS did not instantly respond to Fox News Digital's petition for comment.