Thousands of swarming bees prevented firefighters from getting close to a tree on fire Friday afternoon at an apartment complex in northwest Charlotte.
Someone set fire to the tree on Clarence Street to drive off the bees.
Instead of leaving the tree, the bees swarmed around it.
Shemeka Watson grabbed her family and evacuated her home.
It was a lot of bees, Watson said. We had to leave cause their were so many bees out here."
Firefighters arrived and, for 45 minutes, the bees prevented them from getting out of their trucks.
A little later fire gear provided protection from the swarm, but firefighters still couldn't get the fire out because the bursts of water they sprayed from a distance didn't reach the fire's source deep inside the tree.
In my 22 years in the department this is one of the most unique things I've seen, said fire captain Mike Saye.
The tree smoldered as firefighters tried to cut it down with an ax late Friday afternoon.
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