Brazil fire tornado: Whirling column of flames sweeps through burning fields

By Daily Mail Reporter

Like a special effect from a Harry Potter film, a tornado of fire rises from the ground as if enchanted.

This rare phenomenon then swept through burning fields and stopped traffic in Brazil as bush fires spread across the country.

The whirlwind of flame, several metres high, was caught on camera in Aracatuba, in southern Sao Paulo state. It was caused by strong, dry winds that fanned wildfires.


A fire tornado, also know as a fire devil occurs when a column of warm, rising air is enveloped by flames. Some can be hundreds of metres high and cause widespread devastation.

The phenomenon followed weeks of drought, which has led to reports of humidity levels in Sao Paulo similar to those of the Sahara desert.

It last rained in the city three months ago.

In 1923, a fire tornado ignited by the Great Kanto earthquake in Tokyo grew to the size of a large city and killed 38,000 people in 15 minutes.

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Amazing. It isn't hard to imagine that maybe phenomena like this sparked myths and tales because those that lived thousands of years earlier didn't understand what was happening. For example, in the bible it states "Fire came down from heaven at the consecration of Solomon's Temple". To the untrained eye this would be a miracle but in reality, perhaps what really happened was that either a meteor came down or there was a fire tornado - both of which are nothing to do with God but have a very reasonable, scientific explanation. This is but one example of where our ancestors could easily have misinterpreted what was happening and attributed it to the works of a higher 'being'.

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They had such things in places like, DRESDEN, HAMBURG, BERLIN, just to name some, only they were man made

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Satan is in that tornado. Those that are unrepentant will experience its wrath.

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Rare? I used to see them every year when they burned the stubble! One year the tornado scooted across the field, through a headge, across the lane and into an unharvested field! Did a lot of damage.

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