(CNN) — One bee after you is bad enough. What about thousands?
A man in Arizona died after being stung more than an estimated 100 times.
An exterminator said based on the size of the hive, there were about 800,000 bees.
Douglas Fire Chief Mario Novoa said his department answered a call Wednesday morning and when the crew arrived they found five people stung by bees and the bees still swarming.
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While some of the emergency responders treated the victims, other firefighters went around the neighborhood warning residents to close their windows and stay inside.
Two of the victims were stung many times, the chief said. One of the men died later. He has not been identified and the chief didn’t know what the other man’s condition was.
Novoa said an exterminator found a 3-foot by 8-foot hive on an eave of a house. To get to the hive, the exterminator had to cut through part of the ceiling of the house.
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The 90-year-old owner of the home wasn’t injured.
“We get calls about bees fairly often but I’ve never seen anything to this extent. This is the first time we have recorded a death in our community from bees,” Novoa said.
Douglas is near the border with Mexico, about a two-hour drive from Tucson.
