Baby bear with badly burned paws found in path of Tamarack fire

After evacuating from the growing Tamarack fire over the weekend, homeowners were relieved to find their house still standing, but they found a surprise in their backyard: a bear cub that had been injured in the blaze. The 21-pound cub, dubbed Tamarack after the namesake wildfire burning in northeast California and Nevada, is now recovering at the wildlife center, animal care manager Jenny Curtis said Tuesday. The baby bear was “not terribly bad condition, but dehydrated, so he must have gotten burned early on in the fire,” Curtis said. Tamarack is receiving grafts of tilapia skin to help his burned paws heal, said Jenny Curtis, an animal care manager at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care. The Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care workers cleaned and bandaged the cub’s wounds, wrapping his burned paws in gel and providing pain medication.