Firefighters in Derbyshire, England captured video footage of a rare firenado.
Firefighters in Derbyshire, England had to take their firefighting skills to the sky after a massive blaze at Ravensbourn Plastics, a plastics factory in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, spawned a rare firenado.
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Video of the rare natural phenomenon shows what appears to be a tornado that is on fire, swirling flames reaching up towards the sky at a height of more than 50 feet as firefighters douse it in water.
As the Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service Ashby Station explained on Facebook, the fire whirl, or firenado, is created when “cool air enters the top of the hot air,” which causes “a swirl similar to how a tornado is formed.”
That was not the only firenado firefighters encountered while fighting the blaze, the department sharing a second video on their Facebook page of yet another fire whirl they went up against.
Metro reports that the fire broke out just after 1.40 a.m. local time with hundreds of plastic trays igniting before the blaze spread to an adjacent building as well as a number of forklifts on the property. The fire “completely gutted” the outside storage unit where the fire started, destroying more than 600,000 trays. While there had been three employees in the building at the time of the fire, no injuries were reported.
As a result of the fire, residents were advised to keep their windows and doors closed as a large plume of black smoke blanketed the sky, able to be seen as far away as Nottingham.
“We’ve received lots of calls to our control room this morning, as people in the Swadlincote area have woken to the sight of a large black smoke plume,” Steve Wells, the Derbyshire service’s group manager, said according to The Guardian.
“Crews from across Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire have been working hard since the early hours of the morning, jointly with partners from the police, Seven Trent Water and the Environment Agency, to bring the fire under control, prevent any further spread and bring the incident to a safe and swift conclusion.”
Wells added that while the fire had not broken out “directly next to any residential properties,” locals were still being advised to “keep their windows and doors closed until the fire is completely out and the smoke has subsided.”
While not common, firenadoes have broken out across the world, including in California during the string of recent wildfires.
