Rare ‘fire whirl’ caught on video in B.C. shows strange world of wildfires
A towering funnel of smoke and flames captured on video by a firefighter with the BC Wildfire Service is giving viewers a peek into the surreal world that crews have faced while battling some of the worst wildfires this summer in British Columbia.
In the video posted to Instagram by firefighter Mary Schidlowsky, three crew members can be seen in a tug of war against what she calls a “fire tornado,” which is sucking a hose skyward like a kite string.
“Fire tornado destroyed our line. It threw burning logs across our guard for 45 minutes and pulled our hose 100 plus ft in the air before melting it. That’s definitely a first,” Schidlowsky writes in the post.
The smoke is too thick to show it, but Schidlowsky writes that the column stretches 60 metres into the sky.