Man killed by picking hornet's nest: 35 meters high tree over 24 hours

At 14:02 on September 23, two fire rescue forces of Yibin City and Jiang'an County continued to rescue them for more than 20 hours. They were trapped in the Camellia Group of Tiantang Village, Yile Town, Jiang'an County, Yibin City (the big list). ) A man on a big tree was roped down to the ground.

But unfortunately, the man has long since died and has a bad smell. This unfortunate incident once again reminds people: Don't take the risk of picking hornet's nests privately, and be careful not to hurt others and yourself.

The site of the incident "on the big list" is located in the middle zone between National Highway G246 and Chengdu-Chongqing Ring Expressway G93, which belongs to the deep mountain area of ​​the Nanping Mountain Range in Jiang'an County.

According to the memories of local villager Ms. Lai, on the afternoon of September 22, the local sun was shining brightly and the weather was extremely sultry. She and her sister enjoyed the cool at home. At about 14:20, a forty-something out-of-town woman ran into the house, crying to borrow the stairs, saying that someone had taken a hornet's nest and hung it on a tree.

Ms. Lai hurried to a nearby relative's house and took a wooden staircase to another man. Then, the woman said that her mobile phone could not reach Jiang'an 119, so she borrowed Ms. Lai's mobile phone to call for help. At 14:27, the Jiang'an County Fire Brigade received the police and immediately dispatched professional rescue forces to the scene.

Ms. Lai told reporters that the man in distress was wearing an orange dress, his head, hands, and feet were tightly wrapped, and his body hung on the tree on his stomach. Because the distance is too far, she can't see the specific situation above. Because the tree is too tall, other onlookers can't help.

Peng Ketong, a rescuer from the Fire Brigade of Jiang'an County, Yibin, told reporters that it was a huge camphor tree that trapped the man. The man’s position is about 25 meters above the ground, and the hornet’s nest is about 5 meters above it. The entire tree is about 35 meters high. The diameter of the hornet’s nest is more than 1 meter visually.

Ms. Lai said that she remembered that this camphor tree was a big tree, and it took two people to hold hands to encircle. I've heard of hornet nests on trees before, but no one has ever provoke wasps to locals, and hornets have never stung the locals.

Peng Ketong told reporters that when the fire rescue personnel rushed to the tree, the trapped person had been hanging from the tree for more than an hour, and the rescuers and his accomplices both said that he had lost his vital signs.

Fire rescue personnel found through investigation that the trapped man's head was facing down, his right knee was partially stuck between tree branches, and his waist was secured by a safety rope. Because the man was wearing his own bee-proof suit, his body was completely wrapped tightly, and his facial features and expressions were not visible.

According to weather records, in the afternoon of the 22nd, the highest temperature in Yibin reached 32 degrees Celsius, which was very hot. In order to rescue the trapped man in time, Jiang'an fire rescue personnel ignored the scorching sun and began to use ropes and hook ladders to climb trees for rescue.

"Our rescue workers wear heavy anti-bee suits, the weather is hot, the physical energy is exhausted, and the wasps have been disturbed and are extremely aggressive, so the initial rescue was not smooth." Peng Ketong told reporters that the rescuers tried The water jet drives away the enraged hornet around the tree, but to no avail.

Fire sprinklers to drive away the bee colony

According to Peng Ketong, although the bee-proof clothing worn by rescuers can effectively prevent wasps from hurting people, the wasps had been thoroughly angered by the trapped men and their accomplices. As soon as people approached the tree, they were besieged by groups of pairs of wasps. The vision of the goggles was completely blocked and he was unable to move.

"Wasps will attach to people when they can't sting, and they can release venom from their tails to attack people's faces without relying on poisonous needles." Peng Ketong said, based on previous empirical analysis of picking hornet nests, it is of this size. The number of bee colonies should be more than 10,000.

Since they could not drive away the wasps to rescue the trapped men, the Jiang'an Fire Brigade had to ask the Yibin City Fire Brigade for support. After using drones to spray insecticides on the swarms and wipe out a large number of wasps, rescuers climbed the trees again in September. At 14:02 on the 23rd, the corpse of the trapped man was roped to the ground.

It is understood that when the man’s body was lowered to the ground, the rescuers had already smelled the smell of the body.

Professionals: or died of suffocation caused by power failure of the fan

Ms. Lai, a local villager, recalled that no one took hornet's nests in the area before the incident, and no one heard of them. The local villagers basically would not agree to take the hornet's nest because they were worried that the hornet was irritated and injured.

After the man was trapped and disturbed the villagers, everyone discovered that three men and one woman and four out-of-towners came to fetch the hornet's nest, driving a car into the village. Without the participation of any local villagers, quietly climbed up the tree to pick the hornet's nest. "If it wasn't an accident, they picked (the hornet's nest) and we don't know."

Ms. Lai told reporters that while chatting, the woman said that among the four, the woman and the trapped man had only known each other for a few days, but one of the young men was a relative of the trapped person. After the incident, the relatives in the same company climbed up the tree through the borrowed wooden stairs, but in any case they could not get the trapped man down.

In the process, the second man was also attacked by a wasp and was almost in distress. He finally got down to the ground, and he was almost in a state of collapse. Ms. Lai waited for the villagers to use the water pipes at home to cool down the shower, and it took several minutes for the man to recover. Ms. Lai said that during the conversation, we learned that the four people who took the hornet's nest were from Yibin (city area).

According to Mr. Hong, a professional in hornet breeding industry in Yibin, the man who died was not from Yibin city, but from Guanyin Town, Xuzhou District, Yibin City. He was not a professional who picked hornet honeycombs and sold bee pupae on the Internet, but was a person. Non-professionals.

Mr. Hong analyzed that the anti-bee suit worn by the victims had a built-in fan to provide air and heat dissipation. "It is possible that due to his lack of experience, the fan was cut off, and people died of suffocation and extreme heat in the heavy bee-proof clothing."

Mr. Hong reminded: Picking hornet's nest is a very dangerous activity. Without professional skills and professional equipment, don't take risks.