Man stung 1,000 times coming home; dog dies

An 84-year-old man stung at least 1,000 times by bees while on a walk Thursday morning is expected to come home from the hospital Friday.

SLIDE SHOW: From the scene, www.gvnews.com/gallery

John Pool, who uses a walker, was attacked just before 8 a.m. near Esperanza Boulevard and Paseo Seco in central Green Valley.

Shadow, his 14-year-old, seven-pound toy poodle, did not survive the attack and was cremated, Pool’s wife said Friday.

The hive was found in a seven-foot block column in the back yard of a home with heavy vegetation. Firefighters with oxygen tanks and protective gear knocked down part of the wall and sprayed foam onto the hive as bees swarmed.

Neighbors were warned to stay inside, and a beekeeper later came in to remove the hive.

GV Fire District firefighter Greg Van Alstine said a top piece of the wall was missing and the bees built their hive deep inside.

“After we knocked it down that’s when we noticed that the piece was missing, and they were coming out of it attacking us like crazy,” he said. “There were just too many of them.”