This is the bizarre moment white smoke pours from a tree sparking a call to the fire brigade for help even though many people said it was simply a natural process.
The footage was shot on a tree-lined alley in the city of Xi’an which is the capital of China’s Shaanxi Province when locals noticed thick white ‘smoke’ billowing from the bottom of the tree trunk.
Seven reportedly called the fire brigade, who decided that there was probably a fire and attempted to break away the bark from the tree in order to extinguish it.
They can be seen spraying water on the tree trunk, although many people commented that it was probably not necessary.
Most seem to favour the explanation it was simply evapotranspiration in which the tree transports water from the earth up the trunk, which is then lost through evaporation.
In this case, the fact that on this particular tree, the trunk appears to be damaged meant that some of the moisture was emerging as water vapour lower down, helped by the fact that it was an extremely hot day and the water was being taken up from under the street where it was cooler.
Local weather forecasters said that the temperature when the incident was recorded on 11th July was 37 C.
