Things you need to make your own fire tornado: some lighter fluid, a bucket, a match and 11 window fans.

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Technically NOT a Tornado in the classic sense of the word, although they look and act very similar. In the Wildland Fire business we call them 'Fire Whirls'. Somewhat different attributes in play here than what we see from a Mesocyclonic or Tornadic Vortex Signature involving Hail and precipitation during a storm. Anyways, without going all technical here in a comments box,let me quickly give a laymans explanation of a Fire Whirl:
You need all the necessary Hot Air(from the Fire itself at ground level) and circulating cool air from above... fighting it out for dominance in a given area. The largest battles we see on a daily basis is Hot and Cold. Hot is trying to make that which is Cold warmer and Cold is trying to cool that which is warm. Constant battle. This heating and cooling is constant and is what causes most all large weather phenomenon.

Fire Whirls and Dust Devils form from ground level. Tornadoes spawn from above in cloud tops from rolling precipitation clouds called mesocyclonic cloud formations.Those clouds then spin down or invert to vertical, (from their original horizontal rolling formations) causing a true tornado. You'll hear people say the tornado dropped down when in fact it the wind shear or microburst just inverted.

Technically it's a Fire Whirl, as there is no such thing as a Fire Tornado...but I have heard many an experienced Forest Firefighter call them exactly that, so I wouldn't get all twisted up in the semantics of it all...
Call them what you want. I call them awesome and scary as all hell. I have seen them move and destroy large firetrucks. They have figured the temperature of these fire whirls to exceed well over 2000 degrees F.They will leave a human body left in their path into nothing but ash in seconds. They will melt a good portion of a metal fire apparatus as well.Being inside the cab is of no help.Being in the path of one of these is certain death.

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