A terrifying “fire tornado” was caught on camera amid the infernos currently devastating Los Angeles. In footage captured by Fox 11, the spinning blaze can be seen swirling above a hillside outside of Santa Monica. The channel’s meteorologist, Adam Krueger, explains in the clip that the phenomenon is similar to a “dust devil” on a baseball field. “When you have air rising quicker in a certain spot and not so much surrounding it,” he said, “you get this updraft, and then all it takes is a little breeze coming from any direction, [which] meets up with that updraft, and it will just kind of naturally spin like a vortex.” The frightening occurrence comes as the wildfires have devastated Southern California. At least 11 people have died, more than a hundred thousand have evacuated, and around 12,000 structures have been destroyed due to the blaze, according to The Associated Press. More than 7,500 firefighters and emergency personnel have been deployed to battle the flames and help those affected by the crisis, according to a press release from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.
