But Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, told USA TODAY that it instead appears to be an example of a fire whirl, which is “more akin to a dust devil than a tornado” and is less severe.

A fire tornado is a rare occurrence that only happens when a fire and turbulent winds create a spinning column of fire, ash, and smoke. They're also also known as a fire whirl or fire devil.

The fire whirl was fuelled by intense heat and high winds surrounding a blaze in California. A burning car pushed into a gully sparked the state’s largest wildfire of the year, authorities said.

A look at fire tornadoes: Fire whirl, fire devil, fire tornado or even firenado — scientists, firefighters and regular folks use multiple terms to describe similar phenomena, and they don’t al ...

Last March residents of the Los Angeles foothills were forced to take to their roof-tops with garden hoses to fight walls of fire which razed 10,000 acres. A fire storm in Dorchester last May ...

As if they aren’t already facing enough, firefighters in California also could encounter fire tornadoes — a rare but dangerous phenomenon in which wildfires create their own weather.

As if they aren’t already facing enough, firefighters in California also could encounter fire tornadoes — a rare but dangerous phenomenon in which wildfires create their own weather. The National ...