Las Vegas Firefighters Respond To "Save" Truckload Of Bees

In a part of the country where firefighters are usually called to respond to bee incidents that are a public safety problem, today firefighters responded to save a truckload of bees on Interstate 15. The truck broke a rear axle on Interstate 15 at County 215 while enroute to California from Minnesota. The 408 hives on the flat bed truck contained approximately 11 million bees that will be used for agricultural purposes in Southern California.

Firefighters from Las Vegas and North Las Vegas using a water tanker and engine company cooled the bees by spraying water on the truck twice during the afternoon. Because the truck was not in motion, air could not cool the hives and the bees were beginning to die from exposure to the sunlight. The water saturated the hive boxes, which in turn cooled the honeycomb inside the hives for a few hours. As the bees were being overheated, many thousands were beginning to escape and many were dying.

The truck was later towed to an area, which provided shade and an ability to cool the hives until repairs could be made to the truck, which was expected to take several hours.

The company that owns the bees says the bees were worth approximately $100,000.