An intense and often destructive spate of action or reaction: The report has already generated a firestorm of criticism/ A lawyer from Time-Warner expected a firestorm of protest from the shareholders after the vote
[fr the catastrophic and unquenchable fires caused by aerial bombing of cities in World War II]
violent convection caused by a continuous area of intense fire and characterized by destructively violent surface indrafts. Sometimes it is accompanied by tornado-like whirls that develop as hot air from the burning fuel rises. Such a fire is beyond human intervention and subsides only upon the consumption of everything combustible in the locality.