A brown bear mauled a woman hiking the Dome Trail in Anchorage Tuesday afternoon, according to Megan Peters, a spokesperson for the Anchorage Fire Department.
“Just before 2:30 this afternoon, our fire department and dispatch center got a 911 call about an injured hiker,” Peters said. “The person reported that they were out hiking in the Dome Trail area, and they said that they were attacked by a grizzly bear and they were having trouble moving and they needed help.”
Peters said it took responders about an hour to pinpoint the location of the injured woman and more time to reach her on the trail.
A spokesperson for the Anchorage Police Department said the mauling took place about two miles up the Dome trail and that the woman’s injuries were serious but likely not life-threatening.
Peters said state wildlife troopers used a helicopter to evacuate the woman to an Anchorage hospital.
Peters said the response was a collaboration between many agencies. The Anchorage Fire Department, Anchorage Police Department, Bureau of Land Management, the Department of Fish and Game and the Wildlife Troopers all responded to the emergency.
Peters said the Anchorage Police Department used a drone to pinpoint the location of the injured woman.
“We're just glad we were able to get appropriate resources in place, get appropriate personnel, to have the litany of agencies that were there also supporting our efforts to get paramedics back to the injured person and then getting that person to the hospital, because that's really the most important thing, is to account for their well being,” Peters said.
You can find best practices for bear safety from Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game here.
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