A bee swarm attacked three people near a home close to Sarival Avenue and Van Buren Street in Goodyear on Tuesday evening, leaving one victim stung more than 100 times and hospitalized. The other two people who were stung declined transport to a hospital, while firefighters who responded to the scene were not hurt.
According to KTAR News 92.3 FM, crews were called to the home Tuesday and found that the person stung more than 100 times had already been taken to a nearby hospital, where they were reported in stable condition. A separate account from azfamily.com places the attack at a home on 161st Avenue, north of Van Buren Street, at around 5 p.m., with the Goodyear Fire Department confirming three people total were stung.
Firefighters used foam on the hive at the property, a step the station's report describes as part of the response before they turned their attention to what happens next. The city of Goodyear is contacting the homeowner and plans to have a professional company remove the hive, rather than leaving it in place. It remains unclear what caused the bees to become so aggressive.
How Many Stings Is Too Many
Medical guidance suggests why a hospital trip was warranted here. Banner Health, in health guidance not tied to this specific case, says adults stung more than a dozen times may need emergency treatment even if they aren't allergic to bee venom, according to Banner Health. The health system advises calling 911 after more than 25 to 50 stings, or immediately if someone struggles to breathe, feels lightheaded, or shows signs of an allergic reaction.
Banner Health poison education specialist Bryan Kuhn has said Africanized honey bees are increasingly common across the Southwest and are more likely than other bee types to gather in defensive swarms, per the same health system's guidance. That dynamic has shown up elsewhere in the Phoenix area this year.
A Pattern Of Serious Stinging Incidents
In April, a hiker in north Phoenix was hospitalized in critical condition after being stung more than 100 times on a trail at Lookout Mountain Preserve over Easter weekend, as reported by The Guardian. The hiker was left unable to continue his descent, and technical rescue teams from Phoenix and Glendale coordinated a hoist operation to get him off the mountain. The same report notes that five people were stung by a bee swarm at a university lacrosse game in Tempe around that time, with one hospitalized.
Around the same period, azfamily.com reported that first responders and doctors were seeing more bee stings this year, which the station attributed to record-breaking heat before spring that brought bees out earlier than normal. Banner Health told the station that it had logged 167 total bee-sting cases in 2025 and 42 cases so far into 2026, though the health system also said, separately, that there hadn't actually been an uptick in cases so far this year compared with last year.
Nationally, hornet, wasp and bee stings caused an average of 72 deaths per year in the United States between 2011 and 2021, totaling 788 deaths over that span, according to the CDC. For now, the exact trigger behind Tuesday's Goodyear swarm remains unknown, and the hive removal is being left to a professional company at the city's direction rather than fire crews.
