Thousands of Bees Send Five to Hospital

Bees swarmed a hotel in Pasadena, hospitalizing five people. – Courtesy photo / Jeffrey W. Lotz (CC By 3.0)

Bees cause major traffic snarl Thursday evening

Thousands of Africanized bees swarmed a hotel on Colorado Boulevard near Pasadena City College Thursday afternoon, sending five people to the hospital, including two firefighters and a police officer.

The first injured firefighter was stung approximately 17 times after he arrived at the scene to evaluate the first reported victim.

A police officer directing traffic was stung so many times he was also taken to a hospital.

“The hotel had the responsibility to locate the hive and remove it although the Fire Department and a professional beekeeper is confident the threat to the public has been mitigated,” according to Lisa Derderian, Pasadena public information officer. “They were very aggressive Africanized bees. The beekeeper estimated there were 30 to 40 thousand of them covering an entire square block.”

Africanized honeybees are a subspecies which originated in Southern and Central Africa with a tendency to pursue and send many attackers after any perceived threat.

Colorado Boulevard near the scene remained closed for a few hours, but reopened shortly before 6:45 p.m., according to the Pasadena Police Department.

More from News