After Eaton fire, bear makes home its own, swimming in pool, dining from trash can, ‘definitely not moving’
- Share via
A second black bear has taken up tenancy in the crawl space of a home evacuated during the Eaton fire, prompting local frustration and fear about the creature’s destructive capabilities.
The bear has been making himself comfortable, lounging by the pool during the day and bringing food back to the crawl space from neighbors’ trash at night, said homeowner Sean Lorenzini.
“I think it found refuge under the house during the fire,” he said, “and it’s definitely not moving — that’s its home.”
The bear has left claw marks on neighborhood trash bins, torn insulation from underneath the house and is probably the culprit behind several broken fuses as well as a recent attack on his neighbor’s pet goat, he said. Lorenzini estimates it weighs 500 to 600 pounds.
And Lorenzini is not the only local to discover an unbearable problem when returning home after the fire.
- Share via
At the end of January, an Altadena homeowner could not have the power turned back on because utility crews were too scared of the 525-pound black bear living underneath the house.
The massive adult bear was too large to be tranquilized, so employees from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife used peanut butter and rotisserie chicken to lure the animal out of its cozy crawl space and into a trap.
They then drove the trapped bear to Angeles National Forest, where he was measured and given a medical checkup and a GPS tracking collar before being released. The entire operation took nearly 24 hours and nine team members.
The bear was found in a crawl space under an Altadena home that had been evacuated during the Eaton fire, wildlife officials said.
Now Lorenzini is trying to get the agency to do the same thing with his uninvited guest.
“I feel really sorry for this bear. I know we’re encroaching on their territory, so I’m sympathetic to that,” he said. “But at the same time, I’ve got a property to protect and I’m exposed if anyone gets hurt. This is a wild animal.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Fish and Wildlife said scientists from the agency would visit the site Thursday to assess the situation and come up with a plan.
Lorenzini said he was frustrated that after filing a report about the bear Thursday, he still doesn’t know when it will be relocated. The wildlife agency did tell him that, once the bear is removed, it is important he seal the crawl space as the animal will probably try to return, he said.
“In the foothills of bear country, it’s important to close crawl spaces with bear-proof material in advance of winter months to discourage bears from denning and damaging property,” the department said in a post on the Altadena bear.
The creature’s tenancy has been a huge headache for Lorenzini, who is in the middle of trying to renovate his home and still processing the trauma of the Eaton fire.
His house sits on a lot that was burned during a 1993 wildfire, and he said it was only luck that saved it this time.
“It’s a miracle that this time the wind shifted at the last second and blew the fire away from our hill,” he said.
He is eager to have the bear moved so he can have the utilities turned back on and start assessing the smoke and bear damage his property has endured.
Workers are understandably reluctant to go under the house to fix his gas due to the presence of the bear.
Black bears are not an uncommon sight in the foothill communities of Altadena, Pasadena, Monrovia and Sierra Madre, which border their natural habitat in Angeles National Forest. And as humans fled the devastating Eaton fire, it’s likely that local bears also sought refuge from the flames, said Bobbi Brink, director of the Lions Tigers & Bears animal sanctuary in Alpine.
“When wildfires destroy a bear’s home, they have no choice but to wander into new areas to find food and shelter, and sometimes this brings them closer to where people live,” she said.
Together, the Eaton fire in January and the Bridge fire in September burned around 17% of the 700,000-acre Angeles National Forest.
When bears are fleeing wildfires, they face multiple perils — burned paws and faces, smoke inhalation, and the risk of being struck by a vehicle while crossing a smoke-filled highway.
A similar phenomenon was observed with the Malibu mountain lion population after the 2018 Woolsey fire, when UCLA wildlife researchers documented an increase in the number of cats killed by motorists as the cougars rushed to escape the almost 100,000-acre burn zone.
During the 2021 Caldor fire, several bears were hit by vehicles on highways while fleeing Eldorado National Forest in the Lake Tahoe area, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Bears also broke into evacuated homes in the Tahoe Keys community, damaging garage doors, windows and vehicles and causing thousands of dollars in property damage.
Once bears become comfortable in an area, it is in their nature to settle down and make a den — especially during the winter season, Brink said. When homes are evacuated, it becomes that much easier for bears to become habituated.
She said it’s important that residents try to keep bears from becoming comfortable in their neighborhoods. People who spot them near their homes should immediately make noise to scare them away and never offer them any food.
“Bears are super smart and they look for the easy meal, and they’re repetitive,” she said. “It only takes you feeding them once or twice for you to become their meal ticket.”
Becca Carniello, Western regional representative for nonprofit organization BearWise, echoed this sentiment, saying residents should adopt bear-deterring behaviors.
“Research has shown that relocation is not the best way to handle human-bear conflicts,” she said, “because it doesn’t solve the attraction issue, and they will often return.”
Carniello recommends that all people living near bear habitat seal up crawl spaces with thick plywood, take down bird food when bears are active, keep all pet food inside, purchase bear-resistant trash cans and clean all grease and fat from outdoor grills.
Bears can become especially hungry following wildfires because they rely on vegetation for 85% of their diet, she said. Residential areas offer the potential for feasts, especially when people return after evacuations and start dumping large amounts of expired foods in their trash, she added.
In general, the Department of Fish and Wildlife has cited the destruction of bear habitat and human infringement on the animals’ territory as the key factors driving up the number of bears found in the foothills.
Sierra Madre, in particular, has found bears to be a real bother. The 3-square-mile city tucked below the southern edge of Angeles National Forest saw the number of calls for bear sightings soar from around 100 in 2020 to 380 in 2023.
Bears are growing bolder and seeking their own slice of the California dream.
And although black bears are typically connected to only one — or zero — human death across the country on an annual basis, they can still be dangerous to humans, pets and property.
In 2019, an 83-year-old homeless man was mauled by a black bear while sleeping in the foothills of San Gabriel Valley. Foothill residents also have complained about bears breaking in and damaging their homes.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
