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VANCOUVER — Next to the puddle of blood marking the spot where a 35-year old Coquitlam, B.C., woman suffered a relentless attack from a black bear Wednesday morning lie a couple of rocks that may very well have helped save her life.
Neighbours rushed to the woman's aid, armed with whatever objects they could muster and with little regard for their own safety when the bear attacked her as she was gardening near her Westwood Plateau driveway just before 10 a.m.
Under a steady stream of rocks, the bear finally backed off enough for neighbours to help the blood-soaked woman to her doorway.
"The neighbours most likely saved her life by being able to scare the bear away from the victim," said Coquitlam RCMP spokesman Corporal Tony Farahbakhchian said. "She lost a lot of blood at the scene. Time was of the essence. It was tremendous and very courageous on their part."
Rick Hahn, operations manager for the South Coast Region of the Conservation Officer Service, speaks with the media in Surrey, B.C., after a woman was attacked by a bear outside her home in Coquitlam. (The Canadian Press)
Neighbour Sabrina Susin was one of those who heard the screams and rushed to aid her wounded friend.
"Other people had gotten her to her doorway so I just went and was trying to help my neighbour stay calm," Ms. Susin said. "People were throwing rocks at the bear to get it to go away and it just wouldn't budge. It just kept trying to come towards her, so they would throw rocks at it."
At one point, the bear appeared primed to attack again. Another quick-thinking neighbour, however, fought it off as it approached.
"It got really close, but luckily one of the other ladies who was also helping had a broom or stick and started hitting the bear and screaming and managed to get it away," Ms. Susin said.
Although Corporal Farahbakhchian said the attack lasted three minutes, waiting for the ambulance felt like an eternity for Ms. Susin, who described her neighbour as being "in shock" during the attack.
"She was conscious and very aware of what was going on. She knew my name.
She knew what was going on. The shock had taken over, but she was lucid,"
Ms. Susin said.
The woman has not yet been identified. Corporal Farahbakhchian said the woman is in stable condition at Eagle Ridge Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
"One of her arms has been badly mauled and the back of her skull has been badly attacked as well," he said.
Christian Cillo, 12, was headed to New Westminster with his father when the man pulled the family van over and told his son to stay inside.
Christian watched through a window as his father hurled rock after rock at the bear. His eyes focused on the woman being attacked, whose arm Christian said was "torn open."
Corporal Farahbakhchian said the bear was still acting in a threatening manner when RCMP officers arrived. It was shot and killed in the back yard next door.
Drake Stephens, a co-ordinator with Coquitlam Bear Aware, an organization that educates the public on coexisting with bears, said black bears are becoming more and more brazen because of easy access to human garbage.
"You leave the garbage can out at night, the bear gets a reward in the middle of the night. He's not challenged, starts to lose the fear of people, thinks there's nothing wrong with what he's doing because no one's yelling.
They progress to doing it in the middle of the day. They get closer to people and closer to people," Mr. Stephens said.
"It only takes one neighbour to be rewarding that bear with either garbage or bird seed and everybody's going to be seeing that bear and he's going to lose his fear of people."
He also stressed that black bear attacks are extremely rare in B.C. No fatalities have been recorded in the Lower Mainland in the past 100 years.
Mr. Stephens said bears are commonly spotted in the Westwood Plateau area, partly because of attractions such as garbage, but also because the neighbourhood was built in a bear habitat on a mountain.
Ms. Susin said she frequently sees bears in the neighbourhood though loud noises are usually enough to send them running.
