ALICE SPRINGS, Australia — A filmmaker caught a rare “fire tornado” on camera while scouting for shoot locations in the Australian outback.
Chris Tangey, 52, was helping workers at a cattle station after scouting shoot locations, when he spotted the 100-foot-high fire tornado about 1,000 feet away, according to Travelers Today.
“The weather was perfectly still and it was about 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit)—it was an entirely uneventful day,” he said. “Then the next thing a man is yelling ‘What the hell is that?’”
Tangley said the tornado sounded like a fighter jet.
The tornado, also known as a “fire-devil,” naturally occur very rarely when there is extremely dry heat and a column of warm air comes in contact with a fire on the ground. Although fire-devils typically last just two minutes, Tangley said the one he caught on tape lasted about 40 minutes.
“I’ve been shooting in the outback for 23 years and I have never seen anything like it. We’ve heard about them but they’re never seen,” he told the Daily Mail.
There was no significant damage or injuries from the fire tornado.