A Mission, B.C. man who punched a bear in the nose after it attacked his girlfriend said he acted on instinct when the lumbering creature started to enter his home.

The incident happened at approximately 11:30 Saturday night at a residential property on Wren Street, which backs onto a ravine bears are known to frequent. Dan Flasch was spending the night at home doing laundry when his girlfriend went to put the dogs out.

As the door opened, the dogs started to panic. Flasch had been reading in another room, but came running when he heard his girlfriend's shriek.

"I've never heard a woman scream that way in my life, ever," he told CTV News Monday.

His girlfriend had opened her door to find a mother black bear standing right outside. While her memory is fuzzy, Flasch said, she remembered bending down to pick up one of the dogs, and looking up to find a bear's face near her own.

The bear swatted at her while she turned away, and she fell and hit her head on the cinder blocks or cement near the door. The bear swatted at her again, and bit her on the back.

Flasch came running. He said he didn't think about what he'd do as he approached, just acted automatically.

"I turn to the door. I don't see my girlfriend, I don't see the dogs. The bear is standing in the doorway between everyone and I just ran up to him and punched him right in the face," Flasch said.

"I'm no fighter but I had to get him away somehow."

He waved his arms and shouted while approaching the bear, and the sow backed off, looking over her shoulder several times. But his girlfriend thought the bear might have one of her dogs, so he followed it until a neighbour came out with bear bangers and chased it off.

Fortunately the dogs were OK, and Flasch's girlfriend survived the ordeal. He credits a piece of clothing, now shredded, for her condition.

"Her housecoat saved her… Minor scratches, a couple puncture wounds, and she made it. She's good," he said, tearing up.

Glenn Wells, the neighbour who took over Flasch's attempts to scare off the lumbering bear, said the first bear banger had no effect. He let off a second banger – a small pen-style flare meant to scare off large animals – and managed to scare the mother and one of her cubs up into a tree.

"Then somebody reported the bear bangers as gunshots and five police cars showed up," Wells said.

Conservation officers were also called in, and one officer was bitten in the leg. The mother bear, the cub in the tree and another cub were killed.

Insp. Murray Smith said the cubs were put down because they'd been in the area for days and were "food conditioned."

The conservation officer required stitches for his injury. The woman was taken to hospital for treatment and later released.

Officials spent Sunday speaking to neighbours, reminding them to keep their garbage locked up and clear fruit from trees on their property. Mission has had 245 bear calls this year, and the incident early Sunday was the first time they've had to destroy a bear.

Smith reminded the public to call conservation officials as early as possible to report bears, so they can intervene before the bears develop bad habits.

Residents of the neighbourhood said bears are fairly common in the area, and often come up the ravine looking for food.

Wells said he had a bear in his garage in March, and has since started separating food and storing it safely so the animals aren't able to smell or access it. Another neighbour, Fiona Whittington-Walsh, said a group of residents are starting a Neighbourhood Watch-style program to educate residents in the area.

"We also want to put some pressure on some of the landlords because not everybody has a shed or even a garage to store their garbage," Whittington-Walsh said.

"Some of the people are keeping it on their decks or in the back garden. If you don't have a place to put it, you don't want to keep it in the house. And then this just lets the bears know that there's a constant supply of food."

With files from CTV Vancouver's St. John Alexander