ember

Others called their parents as the wind blew embers across campus, setting palm trees on fire and drawing orange flames closer and closer to their building.

That wasn’t the case in the Mountain fire last month, which recorded hurricane-force winds over the fire, pushing embers more than two miles away from the main fire line.

Gilles said embers were flying all over the place; he wore glasses in an effort to protect his eyes.

“For a while it looked like we were in the clear. Then we could see the fire burning in the distance, and then a bunch of embers came flying into the yard.”

With gusts of up to 80 mph possible, a small fire could transform into an inferno, whipping embers at astonishing speeds and leaving firefighters with few options other than trying to get people to evacuate.