Bear Rescued From Tree In Downtown Danbury

DANBURY, CT — Firefighters at the New Street fire house didn't have very far to travel for their first big job Monday.

"Yesterday was a bear of a day!" Danbury Fire Department officials posted on social media Tuesday. "While doing our morning station cleaning and equipment checks one of our firefighters spotted a bear in the lot behind our fire station."

Christened "Dan Beary" by Mayor Mark Boughton, the ursine intruder "left during the day," the mayor said during his Tuesday evening news conference, only to return that night and get caught in a tree.

"What a save tonight by the team at the Danbury Fire Department. Dan Berry was ‘barely’ hanging on, but, DEEP and our firefighters managed to save him. Great job!" Boughton tweeted.

"For the bear's safety... we requested Connecticut State Environmental Conservation Police who sent us a team to assist in relocating ‘Dan Berry’ to a better home," the Fire Department posted on Facebook.

Boughton said the bear, estimated by a DEEP biologist to be a "yearling" approximately 15 months old, was tranquilized and transported "back to the forest to frolic."

"It's not uncommon to see bears" in Danbury, Boughton said. "They do a lot of traveling this time of year, from April until about June-July."

Members of Danbury's professional firefighters Local 801 posted a video of the rescue, noting, "No bears were harmed in the making of this video."