This one was a little too close to home... Personally having an allergy to insect stings, I'm not sure what would have happened if I had been responding to this incident...
Sounds like a worse-than-normal, but still managable trauma call... Until you hear this part:
An estimated 700 hives per truck, with around 30,000 bees per hive, there were approximately 17 Million bees on one of the trucks that was involved in the crash. Darren Straus, part owner of the company, Bauer Honey, said they lost about 150 colonies in the accident, which will cost about $45,000... But, Straus is more concerned with the victims of the crash.
Well, what about being concerned with the EMS crews and Fire crews that were called for the scene? One of the first on scene was stung by bees
A second semi carrying bees for the same company, not involved in the accident, pulled over at the scene to assist... Lt. Eric Roeske (MN State Patrol) said the drivers transporting the bees had some extra suits that the paramedics were able to put on. Otherwise, with thousands of bees swarming, pouring out of the back of a semi, which is carrying millions of bees, EMS tries to reach the crash victims...
Firefighters tried to keep the bees calm and at bay, by spraying the trucks with water... Knowing personally something about bees, the heat can make them harder to handle -- and Minnesota set records for high temperature yesterday. Plus, if something happens to the queen, they are known to swarm... so if a queen died, or flew out of the colony, every bee will follow, stinging anything and everyone that gets between them and their queen.
So, they see us as a threat, and our duty is to get to the victims... One victim was dead on the scene, and another required helicopter transport, but later died.
As the Responder, what do you do??
News Articles: http://wcco.com/local/fatal.bees.loose.2.1711940.html http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=851626