A firestorm is a massive fire that creates its own wind system, with intense updrafts and violent winds blowing towards the center. Firestorms occur naturally or under man-made conditions, and can cause fire tornadoes. Warning signs of a bushfire firestorm include decreased visibility, sound conduction, and breathing difficulties. Different types of firestorms include thermal bubbles, fire mats, confinement by a layer of cold air, opposite slope pyrolysis, and firestorms at the bottom of a small valley.
A firestorm is a massive fire created when the flames are so intense that they create and sustain their own wind system. Depending on the chimney effect, also known as the chimney effect, the heat from the fire creates such a strong updraft that adjacent air is strongly sucked in, creating violent winds that blow towards the center of the fire. A firestorm is especially likely to occur where gulf stream winds feed it or the temperature inversion layer is punctured by hot air from the fire. Firestorms are likely to occur whenever there is a large enough fire.
Well-known firestorms have occurred both under natural conditions, such as the Great Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin, or the Ash Wednesday fires in southeast Australia, and under man-made conditions, such as in the aerial bombing of Hamburg, Dresden and Tokyo or the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One might think that the wind traveling towards the center of the fire prevents it from spreading outward, but this is not the case. The extreme turbulence around the flame front makes fire spread possible. Often, fire tornadoes, known as flame whirlwinds, form in the chaotic turbulence, hurtling erratically and setting everything in their path ablaze. During the bombing of Dresden, a huge fire tornado incinerated over 30,000 people gathered in a city square in 15 minutes. Firestorms in Hiroshima and Nagasaki left many dead after the initial explosion.
There are several warning signs that indicate the genesis of a firestorm in bushfire conditions. These include decreased visibility, decreased sound conduction, breathing difficulties, and instantaneous roasting (pyrolysis) of leaves away from the main fire. There are several main types of firestorm in a bushfire setting. These include 1) a thermal bubble, where dense foliage in a small valley catches fire and creates a bubble of hot gas that cannot fuse with the air above it due to its great heat, 2) fire mats, where the entire floor of a broad and open valley catches fire, 3) confinement by a layer of cold air, similar to a thermal bubble but can occur anywhere, where the cold air prevents the gases released by pyrolysis from rising, creating a “ tinderbox” that eventually explodes, 4) opposite slope pyrolysis, where a fire on one slope initiates spontaneous combustion across an opposite slope, despite being separated by hundreds of feet, and 5) a firestorm at the bottom of a small valley, where gases released by pyrolysis pool in a river bed and ignite spontaneously when fire reaches it.
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