Another 500-pound bear makes Pasadena home after the Eaton fire

A second black bear occupied the rental in the crawling space of the house evacuated during the Eaton fire, prompting local frustration and the destructive ability of the furry creature.

Homeowner Sean Lorenzini said the bear has always made itself comfortable, hanging out by the pool during the day and bringing food back to the crawling space from the neighbor's garbage at night.

"I think it found a shelter under the house during the fire, and it was absolutely unmoved - that's its home," he said.

He said the bear left claw marks on nearby bins, tore insulation from under the house, possibly the culprit behind several broken fuses and recently launched an attack on neighbor’s pet goat. Lorenzini estimated weights from 500 to 600 pounds.

And, he wasn't the only local resident who found an unbearable problem when he returned home after the fire.

At the end of January, Altadena homeowners were unable to restart power because staff were too scared of the 525-pound black bear living under the house. California fish and wildlife officials were able to lure the use of peanut butter and barbecue chicken before moving it to the Angelis National Forest.

Now, Lorenzini is trying to get the agency to do the same with his uninvited guests.

"I'm very sorry for this bear. I know we're taking over their territory, so I sympathize with it," he said. "But at the same time, I have a property that I can protect and if someone gets hurt, I'll be exposed. It's a wildlife."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Fish and Wildlife said the agency was aware of the Pasadena bear and responded.

Lorenzini said he submitted a report on the bear on Thursday but still didn't know when the fish and wildlife plan to send crews to relocate. He said the agency did tell him that once the bear was removed, it was important that he would seal the crawl space as the creature might try to return.

"In the foothills of the bear country, it is important to close the crawl space with bear materials before winter to prevent bears from tannin and destructive property," the Ministry of Fish and Wildlife said in an article on Altadena Bear. .”

The creature's lease is a headache for Lorenzini, who is trying to renovate his home and is still dealing with the pressure of the Eaton fire.

His house was located in a lot of things burned during the 1993 wildfire, and he said it was lucky to save it this time.

"This time, this time the wind changed in the last second and exploded a fire from our mountain," he said. "So we were spared, but we could only be fluorinated by the wind."

He was eager to move the bear so that he could get gas and reopen it and began to evaluate the smoke and the damage to the bear that his property suffered.

Due to the existence of bears, plumbers naturally don’t want to fix gas under the house.

Black bears are not a rare sight in the foothill communities of Altadena, Pasadena, Monrovia and Sierra Madre, they are in Angeles The natural habitat of Angeles National Forest borders it. As humans escape the 14,100-acre Eaton fire, nearby bears are also likely seeking safe space.

A similar phenomenon has been observed in the Malibu Mountain lion population following the Woolsey Fire in 2018, when UCLA wildlife researchers recorded an increase in the number of people killed by motorists as they hurriedly escaped near 100,000 acres of burn area.

Often, the Ministry of Fish and Wildlife cited the destruction of bear habitat and human infringement on animal territory, which is a key factor driving the number of bears found in the foothills.

Especially Sierra Madre, it's really troubled to find the bear. The three-square-mile city tucked below the southern edge of Angeles National Forest sees the number of bear attractions jumped from around 100 in 2020 to 380 in 2023.

Although black bears are usually linked only to human deaths nationwide each year, they are still dangerous to humans, pets and property.

In 2019, an 83-year-old homeless person was harassed by a black bear while sleeping in the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley. Foothill residents also complained about bears breaking in and destroying their homes.