Tonight, we begin with a heartbreaking tale of a fierce protector who was felled by a ferocious swarm of killer bees. Chip the dog has spent his life guarding his family and his yard. But when it was invaded by killer bees, there wasn't much he could do. They swarmed and ultimately killed him, leaving his family distraught.
But the bees stung indiscriminately, sending street sweepers scrambling as well. Our Clifford Mejia was on the scene - dodging bees himself - and Courtney Menzies has this story - we warn sensitive viewers that the story does depict a dead animal.
This is the heart-wrenching moment when 4 year old Chip's owner realized that there was nothing he could do, he believed canine companion had just been killed by a swarm of killer bees. He makes futile attempts to resuscitate his beloved pet, trying to come to terms with what just happened.
Chip was attacked by bees that had been swarming an area around Lizarraga Avenue early this afternoon. We found many still buzzing in the area - and just moving him out of the attack zone was a tactical task for this dog owner - who had to constantly be spraying repellent to fend off attacks.
According to another of his owners, Chip took his job as guard dog very seriously - neither bark nor bite could hold them at bay.
Voice of: Son-In-Law
"Really jovial dog, very territorial, but he's a security dog, so that's what he's for."
"Yeah, he's very loving. He loves water. He's very territorial. That's the main thing with him. He protects this yard, so we just lose one of our main security effort."
And for Chip's family, they never expected this to happen since they've never had a problem with bees before. And now they're asking for help before anyone else gets hurt.
Voice of: Son-In-Law
"We've been here for almost seven years because we practically rent from the owner, so we've been here for seven years, and it's the first time that we actually had an encounter with bees."
"I just really want some help for dealing with these bees. I know it's a very unfortunate scenario. It could have happened anywhere. It just happened in our area. So we're just really asking for some assistance to at least fumigate the area, so passerby's can actually pass through as well, because it's a health risk and stuff for them as well."
"Any school children and anything passing by here, they'll definitely get stung and stuff as well. My fiance, she's deadly allergic to bees, so even if she gets one sting, her entire throat sees closed up, and it's going to be a very, very hard tragic incident."
"She lives here as well with us, so we probably will have to relocate her at a hotel for the time being there somewhere because we don't really have family members here. all of them is either out of the country and stuff like that."
City Council street sweepers who were working in the area were also forced to take cover as bees began swarming them - and one of the workers went down:
Voice of: City Council Employee
"When I was working with the Belize City Council team, we were cutting the grass. Well, one of the co-workers was cutting the grass, and then I saw him fell on the ground because of a bee nest that attacked him. And we run when we saw him fell, but before we run from away from him, we would check on him that he is okay. And after that we start running from the bee nest, so that they do not attack us. It also killed a dog from the neighborhood as well. It sting like five of us. I get sting on my nose when I went to check on my co-worker, see if he is okay, and the other gets sting. Some of them get sting on their neck."
Voice of: City Council Employee
"They ask me why we left our co-worker there. But he was alright."
Reports are that BAHA arrived later this evening to remove the bees.
If you have a bee problem, call BAHA at 224-4794 or 804-2079.
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