Fire Tornado in the News - The fierce Santa Ana winds and the Southern California fires combined with bone-dry vegetation to create a “fire tornado” - a perfect storm whipping flames hundreds of feet in the air.
Here are some pics of these fire tornadoes from current California wildfires. Some are distant shots from miles away of entire mountain ridges lit by 50-foot flames with winds gusting to 80 mph.
Others are up close shots as firefighters battle the flames of these fire tornadoes. These fire storms can swirl and jump several hundred feet to a new hotspot in just a few seconds, making it impossible to contain the blaze until the winds die down.
Here’s a night shot of huge flames in the Santiago Canyon fire:
The Witch Creek fire has been exceptionally intense:
The Witch Fire has burned nearly 200,000 acres in 3 days and is only 1 percent contained. Twelve firefighters have been injured on this fire, and there currently are nearly 1,500 firefighters assigned to battle this firestorm.
The Harris fire down near the Mexican border is no slouch either:
The Harris Fire has reached 72,000 acres and is 10% contained. Full containment isn’t expected until Oct. 31. The blaze has injured 21 people and killed at least one person.
The Rancho Bernardo firestorm destroyed 500 homes in a day:
The Rice Canyon fire doen’t look like much from a distance:
Then you realize that little speck on the road in the lower left of the picture is a car and realize that those flames are at least 60 feet tall!
And this is what happens if your car is caught in a fire storm:
Hot embers swirling in superheated high winds can ignite just about anything flammable in about 30 seconds time.
California Wildfire Tornado Video
Stay safe tonight and hope the winds die down soon…
And that’s the latest news on the Southern California fire tornado.
No tag for this post.
October 24th, 2007 at 3:24 am
[...] hitsusa wrote an interesting post today on Fire TornadoHere’s a quick excerpt… high winds can ignite just about anything flammable in about 30 seconds time. Stay safe tonight and hope the winds die down soon… And that’s the latest news on the Southern California fire tornado. Tags: News, Web Site Traffic. [...]
October 26th, 2007 at 9:22 am
dang that car was off the hook and them fire are vevry pretty and delicious
November 12th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
you are gay
November 15th, 2007 at 8:07 am
this is fake all set up by the united states of america just to cover up a bigger story then they are telling you,
it has been planned to set fires all around the world in differnt ways to get peope to start rioting and to blame the goverment so the goverment can wipe ur country off the map like they did with 1 of the main motorways in texas leading to a small village
all wat i can say is fight bak and stand up tp the goverment
December 2nd, 2007 at 1:55 am
hacker master needs to stop smoking whatever he is smoking. I live in Rancho Bernardo…and have numerous friends who lost their homes. Tell them this is fake…
February 9th, 2008 at 12:33 am
ummmmm……. cool but i think one of you should go out with me!!!!
February 9th, 2008 at 12:34 am
striper!!!
February 9th, 2008 at 12:36 am
uh……..ummm…….love? can one love one?
February 9th, 2008 at 12:38 am
sweet@!!
March 4th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
you guys are all jerks i bet its not fake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lousers expeshuly you kaylie
August 20th, 2008 at 1:40 am
[...] it might be very scary seeing that in actually or personally but I wonder what was your reaction about a california Fire Tornado: take a look at this link:Fire Tornado [...]