Fire whirls come about only under specific conditions, a combination of air currents and temperature. A fire on the ground forms a whirl which can rapidly reach great heights, though mercifully most never last for long. However, just like a tornado, the fire rises in an almost vertical rotating column.
The Great Kanto earthquake in Japan in 1923 showed how lethal they can be. A fire whirl spontaneously combusted (how else to describe it?) and killed almost forty thousand people in a little under twenty minutes.
Moreover, there was a fire caused by a lightning strike on a fuel depot in San Luis Obispo, California, in the 1920s. The resulting firestorm produced a myriad of fire whirls which carried debris over three miles away. There is every possibility that you will, in your life time, hear of a fire whirl wreaking untold havoc on lives and property.
Fire whirls are certainly magnificent to behold but they are also capable of propagating fire in areas previously untouched. As such, although they are invariably greeted with some awe there is always a dread of what greater damage they might inflict.
Yorba Linda, California
Rabbit Mountain: Oregon. This amazing image of a fire whirl has become the symbol of the 2013 fire season. Appearing in national media, this is what folks in the fire biz call "extreme fire behavior" as evidenced by the magnitude of heat, smoke and wind patterns.
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