LEMON GROVE , Calif. (KGTV) — A Lemon Grove woman and two teenage girls are recovering after a swarm of bees attacked them at a family pool.
“It was just a regular summer day. We were swimming,” Tiffany Ahmu, a bee attack victim, said.
According to Ahmu, the wet and fun Wednesday afternoon in the pool turned into something out of a horror movie.
“And I can hear my oldest tell, 'Mommy, you need to come out here right now,'” Ahmu said.
Just as she finished serving lunch for her friend’s kids and her own, she stepped out.
“I run out here, and it’s just a swarm of bees. I couldn’t see any blue. I mean, it was just caked,” Ahmu said.
Over the last ten years, 10News has covered these different attacks happening in Fallbrook, Oceanside, Santee, and even at a Padres game.
Ahmu told 10News they were calling 911 for help the whole time with Heartland Fire and Rescue responding.
“It’s a unique call,” said Battalion Chief Dave Hardenburger with Heartland Fire and Rescue.
Hardenburger responded to the call as the incident commander.
“If you’ll recall, there was a time when all of the buzz - forgive the pun - was the Africanized honeybees were coming into the United States and how aggressive they were,” Hardenburger said.
Ahmu said each of the kids got stung three to five times, with her infant niece being stung.
“My husband throws every child in the shower, he’s hosing them down, he’s swatting the bees. They’re everywhere in the bathroom; everywhere [in] the house,” Ahmu said.
When the kids were safe inside, there was still someone outside Ahmu’s parents’ home with the bees— their beloved dog, Kona.
“I have to get Kona. I can’t leave her out there to die. I come outside, and I can’t see one inch of her. She’s covered in bees,” Ahmu said.
Without a worry about the bees, Ahmu said she scooped up Kona and jumped in the pool with her to get the bees off. Kona was already limp but breathing.
“We lost Kona in the end. She was my 17-year-old daughter’s registered emotional support animal,” Ahmu said.
She thinks that she was stung 50 times after bees covered her back, neck and scalp during the ordeal. “The ambulance found; they counted 20 in my hair. They lost count on my back. I’m achy. I feel like I was in a car accident,” Ahmu said.
Ahmu told 10News that she and two of her friend’s teenage daughters were taken to the hospital and have since been released.
As for why the bees swarmed, she's not sure.
“Somebody had to have messed with their hive or something, and it must have been disrupted [the bees] in some type of way because they were angry,” Ahmu said.
