firestorm is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system . It is most commonly a natural phenomenon , created during some of the largest bushfires and wildfires . Although the term has been used to describe certain large fires , the phenomenon 's determining characteristic is a fire with its own storm-force winds from every point of the compass . The Black Saturday bushfires and the Great Peshtigo Fire are possible examples of forest fires with some portion of combustion due to a firestorm , as is the Great Hinckley Fire . Firestorms have also occurred in cities , usually as a deliberate effect of targeted explosives , such as occurred as a result of the aerial firebombings of Hamburg , Dresden , firebombing of Tokyo and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
Black Saturday bushfires
Black Saturday bushfires
Firestorm