Crews all over the world continue to fight wildfires this summer, but a fire tornado in Canada may be the peak of the extreme weather.
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Most of the fires in Canada are burning in British Columbia, a province on the country’s Pacific coast. That’s where crews on the ground captured this video.
Officials with the British Columbia Wildfire Service say the conditions were ideal to create this fire whirl, also called a fire tornado. Unfortunately, that meant the conditions were also perfect to continue to spread and fuel the fire.
In a response, officials say fire whirls are an extremely rare phenomenon, and most crews have never seen anything like it. These fire tornados can be from 100 to 1,000 feet in diameter and spin up to 90 miles per hour. The core temperature can be about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
The fire tornado in Canada didn’t cause any additional damage, but this fire season has seemed endless in the country. Tens of thousands of people remain evacuated today, with crews spread thin over vast areas of the country. The latest reports say thousands of different fires have now burned nearly 38 million acres, close to the size of Georgia. Unfortunately, crews have no end in sight as they work to contain the fires as dry conditions persist.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., crews continue to deal with the destruction left behind in Maui. Local media reports at least 115 people are dead, while around 1,000 people remain missing. The majority of the damage in Hawaii is in the city of Lahaina where more than 2,000 buildings are destroyed.
