Police said a Boulder man who attempted to scare off a bear with fireworks ended up sparking a small fire in his yard.

According to Sgt. Randy Wilbur of the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, a homeowner on the 800 block of 5th Street near Flagstaff Mountain noticed a bear disrupting his backyard beehives around 9 p.m.

In response, Wilbur said, the homeowner shot “one or two pop-bottle rockets” toward the bear. When he saw that the fireworks had caused some smoldering on his grass, he phoned the fire department.

Meanwhile, the bear, undeterred by the bottle rockets, had to be hazed off with a garden hose, Wilbur said.

The smoldering didn’t spread in any serious way, Wilbur added.