A black bear, dubbed "Tenderfoot" was found injured near the Caldor Fire with third-degree burns on its paws and euthanized by state wildlife officials on Thursday.
The injured bear was found on Tuesday near the Meyers area. California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials responded to the scene to assess the burns, according to reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The goal is usually to take injured animals to safety where they can be treated and rehabilitated. But according to Kirsten Macintyre, a fish and wildlife spokesperson, "it’s not always possible."
According to Kyle Glau, a warden with the CDFW, the fire line was "encroaching" on the bear, and officers determined that if they didn’t euthanize the bear at the scene, it would burn to death.
A Wildfire Defense Systems crew that had been patrolling nearby homes to ensure there weren’t any spot fires endangering residences found the bear.
The bear was determined too large to transport out of the active fire area, Macintyre said.
"It was a combination of the fact that the injuries were bad and there was no easy way to transport him out of the area because it was an active fire scene with firefighting going on," Macintyre said. "If he hadn’t been so injured, he probably would have tried to get away from the firefighters in the first place, but he was just too injured to move."
According to Glau, as of Thursday, this has been the only case where an animal needed to be euthanized in response to wildfire burns from the Caldor Fire. But state wildlife officials do expect more reports of injured wildlife in the area.
