Firefighters fighting a wildfire watched in amazement as a ‘tornado’ raged through the still smoldering field.
A crew filmed the freak weather phenomenon – what turned out to be a rare ‘dust devil’ – raging through charred landscape and sky in Brandon, County Durham.
Fueled by extreme heat and almost never seen in Britain, the potentially deadly whirlwinds are usually whipped up in the hottest places in the world, including Death Valley, California.
A shocked viewer of the footage compared it to the tornado that swept into Kansas at the beginning of Wizard Of Oz.
County Durham & Darlington Fire and Rescue Service shared footage Friday of the towering twister shoveling debris and hot ash as they raced for their hoses as they ensured a bushfire was suppressed.
The service tweeted from their @cddfrs account: ‘Here’s something you don’t see every day! This is a dust devil from a bushfire in Brandon this afternoon.
‘Dust devils form when a pocket of hot air near the surface rises rapidly through cooler air above it and forms an updraft. Some might say it’s out of this daze! #HereAllWeek.’
Twitter user Tony Warne commented on the clip, “Well, that’s another one to tick off my “things we didn’t expect to see as early as 2022.” #ClimateChaos bingo card.’
Another, @Lophophanes, added: ‘Very dangerous in this context as it can carry glowing embers a long way to start new fires!’
Paul Hedley, chief fire officer at Northumberland Fire & Rescue Service, tweeted, “That’s very impressive,” while another said, “Looks more like Kansas than Britain, crazy stuff.”
Cranborne Fire Station’s official Twitter account pointed out, “The Aussies call them Willy-willies #true #fact.”
Sobering numbers have emerged showing they are under more pressure than ever to tackle the worst impacts of climate change yet in Britain.
(Photo: Reuters)
As bushfires rage across the country as it is roasted by the second record-breaking scorcher of the summer, a Guardian analysis of publicly available data said the total number of firefighters in 46 English fire authorities has fallen 20.4% – by 35,279 – since 2010 in 2021 compared to 44,307 in 2010.
Data collected by the Local Government Association shows that the number of manned fire stations in England has also fallen, from 1,432 in 2009/10 to 1,393 in 2019/20.
Some fire and rescue services have cut government funding by more than 40%, with some brigades losing up to £22 million.
Andy Dark, the deputy general secretary of the Fire Brigade, said: “Just over two weeks ago, firefighters were dealing with many serious wildfires across much of the country.
“Several firefighters were injured and many people lost their homes. If we want to properly protect people’s lives and property against wildfires, the fire service urgently needs huge investments.’
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