A Southern California man returned home after evacuating last month’s devastating Los Angeles-area wildfires to discover an unexpected resident lurking beneath it.
Samy Arbid told CNN he found a 525-pound adult, male black bear living under his Altadena, California, home after the Eaton Fire blazed through the city. The fire scorched more than 14,000 acres and ranks among the state’s top-three most destructive wildfires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The bear, which survived the fire while living under Arbid’s house, required out-of-the-box thinking for a wildlife team to safely lure him out.
“We had heard from neighbors that there’s, you know, this big bear. He comes around all the time,” Arbid said last week. “Nobody knew that the bear was actually living under our house. So that was a surprise to everybody.”
The couple discovered Barry as they began to hear noises under their home. They decided it was likely a small critter. However, what started as a few hisses and strange growls quickly turned into a shocking discovery.
