Photo: Facebook / Hoopa Fire Department and Office of Emergency Services
It’s bad enough to have a bear fall on the roof of your car (for both yourself and the bear), but for this to cause a crash that sparks a fire and then starts a wildfire is totally something else.
It happened last weekend to an unfortunate deputy with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office in Hoopa, California. The deputy was on duty, on his way to check on a possible overdose call in Orleans, when the bear fell from a high embankment on Highway 96, landing straight on the roof of his car, ABC affiliate KRCR-TV reports.
The impact caused the deputy to lose control of the car, hit the embankment and then flip the cruiser. Adding insult to injury, much like in a horror film, the car then caught fire. By the time the deputy got out of the wreck seemingly unharmed, the fire had spread to surrounding vegetation.
It was, indeed, the worst possible string of unfortunate coincidences.
“Fire crews responded and extinguished the vegetation fire. According to the Hoopa Fire chief, the fire burned about half an acre. Crews remained on scene until daylight Sunday morning to address complications suppressing the fire, including burning snags and rolling rock,” KRCR-TV says.
“According to the HCSO, the deputy was able to escape the burning car and was not seriously injured. No word on the condition of the bear,” adds the same media outlet.
Photos posted to Facebook by the fire department in Hoopa show that the car burned down to a crisp, so it’s a complete write-off. While the report doesn’t mention anything of the bear, we should note that the embankment was very high and very steep. In other words, even someone who’s not an expert in animal-vehicle collisions could infer that chances of survival for the bear were slim.
The impact caused the deputy to lose control of the car, hit the embankment and then flip the cruiser. Adding insult to injury, much like in a horror film, the car then caught fire. By the time the deputy got out of the wreck seemingly unharmed, the fire had spread to surrounding vegetation.
It was, indeed, the worst possible string of unfortunate coincidences.
“Fire crews responded and extinguished the vegetation fire. According to the Hoopa Fire chief, the fire burned about half an acre. Crews remained on scene until daylight Sunday morning to address complications suppressing the fire, including burning snags and rolling rock,” KRCR-TV says.
“According to the HCSO, the deputy was able to escape the burning car and was not seriously injured. No word on the condition of the bear,” adds the same media outlet.
Photos posted to Facebook by the fire department in Hoopa show that the car burned down to a crisp, so it’s a complete write-off. While the report doesn’t mention anything of the bear, we should note that the embankment was very high and very steep. In other words, even someone who’s not an expert in animal-vehicle collisions could infer that chances of survival for the bear were slim.
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