Watch: Terrifying fire tornado rips through Australian Outback
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An astonished filmmaker has captured the moment he witnessed rare and rather terrifying fire tornado on camera. Scroll down to see the video
Chris Tangey had been out in Alice Springs, Australia scouting locations for a new movie.
After finishing he went over to help workers at a cattle station when he was confronted by one of nature's most intimidating spectacles.
Just 300-metres away from him was a 30-metre high fire swirl which, he said, sounded like a "fighter jet".
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"You would have paid $1000 a head if you knew it was about to happen."
Talk of making a quick getaway quickly fizzled, according to Mr Tangey, who said everyone was too hypnotised to feel scared.
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The column of fire danced about the landscape for about 40 minutes, he said, as he and the station workers stood transfixed.
The scary fire swirl – also known as a fire devil - is caused when warm air comes into contact with, or causes, a fire on the ground.
Darwin weather forecaster David Matthews said small twisters were common in isolated areas. But the fiery vortex was highly unusual.
"The flames would have assisted by trying to suck in air and that could have helped generate those circular winds," Mr Matthews said.
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According to The Sun, Mr Tangey said: "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.
"The whole experience was staggering and the length and variety were astonishing."
The spectacle is very rare, and, unsurprisingly, also very dangerous.
n 1923, a fire whirl emerged during Japan's Great Kanto Earthquake and killed 38,000 people in just 15 minutes.
See the footage below:
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