Two hospitalized after bee swarm attacks

Two men were transported to the hospital Wednesday afternoon after a bees’ nest was disturbed when one of the men, an unidentified DirectTV employee, was working on a home in the 40000 block of West Magnolia Road.

“It was terrible,” Phoebe Lechuga, one of the home’s five residents, said. “They were flying everywhere.”

Lechuga’s 33-year-old son, Resugio Furwilder, was also transported to the hospital.

Furwilder went outside to help the DirectTV worker and was stung himself, Lechuga said.

Her daughter, Vanessa Lechuga, 27, was also stung but was not taken to the hospital.

Lechuga said at first the worker thought there were only a few bees and didn’t come inside after the first stings.

“He said, ‘Hey, you got some bees out here,’” Lechuga said. “We asked if he wanted to come in but he said (no).”

Then he went to the van to get what Lechuga said was “a spray.”

“Then all of a sudden, we heard him yelling,” Lechuga said.

She said the man grabbed a mattress that was leaning against the side of the house.

“The poor guy covered himself with the mattress,” Lechuga said.

He ran about 200 feet to a nearby storage unit but was chased by the swarm.

Then he ran back to the house and Lechuga called the fire department.

The Maricopa Fire Department responded to the scene at approximately 3 p.m. and used foam to kill some of the bees.

Brad Pitassi, MFD spokesman, said foaming the bees is necessary “when they pose a direct threat to life safety.”

Lechuga, however, was told she needed to find a beekeeper to take care of the rest of the nest.