Not An Average Work Day: Irving Firefighter Rescues Bee Hive In Dumped Sofa

Everyone's seen stories of firefighters saving puppies from house fires or retrieving cats from tall places, but a firefighter in Irving helped save thousands of much smaller critters - bees.

The Irving Fire Department was called out to W.O. Harrington Park on October 9. Nothing was on fire, but someone dumped an old couch that was buzzing with thousands of bees.

Employees with the Solid Waste Management Department were first called out to the park to get rid of the couch. They didn't move the it because they thought it was infested with wasps.

The Fire Department was asked to spray down the couch with insecticide so it could be safely thrown away. The hive was lucky that day because firefighter James Bruno was able to tell that they were bees instead of wasps, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Bruno is an aspiring beekeeper and, in another stroke of luck, so is Bill Sangster, Irving's landfill manager. The two men put their apiary skills to work to safely get the bees out of the old piece of furniture and into a hive box.

The bees have been relocated, which is good news for nature lovers since the yellow and black bugs are a crucial part of the ecosystem.

Photo: Irving Fire Department