LAKE FOREST (CBSLA) — A cleaning lady and four firefighters were hurt Monday after they were attacked by a swarm of bees. leaving the woman in critical condition. The woman had arrived to clean a home in the 23000 block of Buckland Lane in Lake Forest just before 10:30 a.m. when she was attacked by a swarm of bees, according to Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Tony Bommarito. Firefighters say she had what appeared to be around 50 bees covering her body, including her face, Bommarito said. There were as many as 80,000 bees in all involved in the attack, CBS2’s Dave Lopez reported. Opting not to wait for special suits to protect them from the bees, the firefighters rushed in with a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher they typically use for grease fires, Bommarito said. “They determined they needed to get that patient away from the bees, so they sprayed them with a carbon dioxide extinguisher and in the process all four got stung, two multiple times,” the captain said. The woman – who officials had just arrived for work when she was attacked – was stung hundreds of times and transported to Saddleback Medical Center in critical condition, Bommarito said. UPDATE: Officials say the female victim is a cleaning lady who had just arrived for work when she was attacked by the bee swarm. A bee expert has arrived and is now working on removing the swarm. 60-80 thousand bees is his estimate @CBSLA @KCBSKCALDesk pic.twitter.com/fvSVd0jco4 — Chris Ercoli (@CERCOLICBS) July 16, 2018 Two firefighters were also injured but were expected to recover, while the other two firefighters were also stung a few times but declined to be transported, Bommarito said. “They did an excellent job,” Bommarito said of the firefighters. “I hate to use the cliche that they made a life-or-death decision, but that’s just what they did. Hopefully maybe she lives based on what they did.” An estimated 10 pounds of hives were also removed from the scene by a company that specializes in handling bees, according to Bommarito. “It looks like she opened her trunk” next to the hives, which were “completely hidden”, Bommarito said. (© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
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Cleaning Lady, Firefighters Hurt In Bee Attack
