The Associated Press

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A Great Falls-based firefighter said he doesn't hold a grudge against a grizzly bear that injured him while trying to escape a fire in Yellowstone National Park.

Tony Allabastro, 26, said the bear came after him because he was between the bruin and its route away from the flames.

"It really wasn't attacking me," he told the Great Falls Tribune in a telephone interview. "It just wanted a way out."

Allabastro was treated for scrapes on his back and thighs and bruising after the Aug. 3 encounter near the now 9,300-acre LeHardy fire.

Allabastro said he and four other firefighters were setting a backburn when he heard "a little snap. "I look up and there's a bear taking a few steps toward me."

Allabastro said he began walking away, but when he turned to look over his shoulder, the bear was running at him at full speed.

"I instinctively started running as well," he said.

The bear chased Allabastro about 8 feet to a pile of logs, then swatted him in the shoulder a few times. Allabastro said he tried to crawl underneath the logs, but the bear pulled him out. Then, standing on Allabastro's thighs, the bear reared up on its hind legs and slammed his front paws down on his shoulders.

"It did that once, maybe twice," he said.

Then the bear ran off.

"It does seem kind of surreal at this point," Allabastro said. "It makes you a little more aware when you are walking through the woods."

Allabastro, a Chicago native, has been living in Missoula for eight years. This is his first season with the Lewis and Clark Hot Shots.