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, ...

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.

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 ...