Bush fire goes from 1 to a 100 in a couple seconds

Sagemindsays...

That's called "Candling"
As someone who has been evacuated many times and had my town threatened by forest fires many times, I've seen this first hand so many times. It's scary, but can be predicable. Pine needles are very flammable, and at the correct temperature, they dry instantly and burst into flame like a fuse. If other trees are close, they just keep lighting the next one, like match heads in a book of matches.

If you've ever used pine needles as kindling to start a fire, you'll understand this.

eric3579says...

Seems Eucalyptus trees are made to create firestorms..

Fallen eucalyptus leaves create dense carpets of flammable material, and the trees' bark peels off in long streamers that drop to the ground, providing additional fuel that draws ground fires up into the leaves, creating massive, fast-spreading "crown fires" in the upper story of eucalyptus forests.

Additionally, the eucalyptus oil that gives the trees their characteristic spicy fragrance is a flammable oil: This oil, combined with leaf litter and peeling bark during periods of dry, windy weather, can turn a small ground fire into a terrifying, explosive firestorm in a matter of minutes. That's why eucalyptus trees — especially the blue gums (Eucalyptus globulus) that are common throughout New South Wales — are sometimes referred to wryly as "gasoline trees."
https://www.livescience.com/40583-australia-wildfires-eucalyptus-trees-bushfires.html

Eucalyptus do extremely well after fires. Fire and Eucalyptus make good partners it seems. https://wildfiretoday.com/2014/03/03/eucalyptus-and-fire/

newtboysays...

Those look like eucalyptus not pine trees....but the same process applies.
The heat will not only desiccate leaves/needles, but it will also vaporize the oils in the leaves (needles in pine trees) making even the air in the canopy flammable. Eucalyptus trees are loaded with oils, maybe even more than pine trees. This is also called crowning, a crown fire, or a canopy fire. Once a fire crowns, it's nearly impossible to fight from the ground....or at all if the tree tops are close together.

Scary stuff. Where I live, in the Northern California redwood forests, that canopy can be hundreds of feet high and continuous in places.

Sagemindsaid:

That's called "Candling"
As someone who has been evacuated many times and had my town threatened by forest fires many times, I've seen this first hand so many times. It's scary, but can be predicable. Pine needles are very flammable, and at the correct temperature, they dry instantly and burst into flame like a fuse. If other trees are close, they just keep lighting the next one, like match heads in a book of matches.

If you've ever used pine needles as kindling to start a fire, you'll understand this.

OverLordsays...

Called "Crowning" down here.

Sagemindsaid:

That's called "Candling"
As someone who has been evacuated many times and had my town threatened by forest fires many times, I've seen this first hand so many times. It's scary, but can be predicable. Pine needles are very flammable, and at the correct temperature, they dry instantly and burst into flame like a fuse. If other trees are close, they just keep lighting the next one, like match heads in a book of matches.

If you've ever used pine needles as kindling to start a fire, you'll understand this.

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