Amateur Exterminators Stung by Small Fire at UConn Off-Campus Complex While Trying to Get Rid of Bees​

MANSFIELD, CT — Some university of Connecticut students were displaced from their off-campus apartments after they started a fire while trying to get rid of some bees who invaded their cookout, the Mansfield fire marshal said.

Mansfield firefighters were dispatched to the Carriage House apartment complex Tuesday after receiving a 911 call at 6:40 p.m., Fire Marshal Francis Raiola said.

Raiola said the students were cooking outdoors in the rear of an apartment when the heat of the grill apparently stirred up some bees who had burrowed through some mortar and were nesting in a wood section of a wall behind the brick facade.

Unaware there was wood behind the facade, the students played amateur exterminators and squirted some lighter fluid onto the brick and lit it, Raiola said. The wood then began to smolder, he said.

Raiola said firefighters needed "just a couple of gallons" of water to get the situation under control, but cabinetry in the kitchens of two apartments had to be removed for inspection.

The other two units n the four-apartment cluster were not affected, Raiola said.

The seven students were found temporary housing, he said. The apartments at Carriage House should be available "in a few days" Raiola said.

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