Stanislaus County firefighters found themselves battling more than just a wildfire after firefighters dispatched to fight a morning blaze were invaded by wasps.
Modesto Fire Department and Cal Fire responded to a fire involving dozens of bee hives on private property adjacent to Sonora Road Thursday morning as temperatures reached triple digits. The blaze is believed to have been started by a malfunctioning bee smoker, according to Modesto Fire Department Battalion Chief Jim Black.
High winds caused the fire to spread to 1.6 acres of nearby grassland, forcing the road to be temporarily closed before firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze in 15 minutes, Black said. Firefighters were unable to save any of the hives, and it’s unclear how many bees died.
But when the flames and smoke cleared, the sky was filled with the buzzing of angry, fleeing bees.
“Once the fire was out, all the bees came back and were flying around overhead. A couple of firefighters got stung,” Black said. “No one had to go to the hospital and no one had an allergic reaction.”
As the firefighters returned to the station, they were joined by hundreds of hitchhikers, and swarms of bees were found on the windshield and doors of the fire truck.
“We had to spray them with water to get them off the engine,” Black said, adding that it was unclear whether the hive was simply chasing a queen bee that was stuck to the engine.
Black said firefighters are trained to fight fires, not angry bees.
“I’ve been a firefighter for 21 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.
