Fire
Fire
• Fire spread itself throughout the whole building like locusts destroying everything in its path. Everywhere, people were taking off in all directions with fear visibly etched on their faces. The fire changed from orange to blue as the temperature rose like the thick black fumes that were stretching skywards.
• Pandemonium broke out, people dashed off in fear, hoping to escape from the clutches of the raging fire. The howling wind fed the raging flames and the fire sang a grim tune triumphantly as it burnt. The repugnant burning scent filled the air as the ravenous orange flames swallowed up the building.
• The orange clutches of fire wrapped its fiery fingers around the whole building, turning the whole building into a gloomy black. The roaring flame escalated ferociously when aided by the strong winds. The entire building was transformed into an incinerator with its strong flames, cremating everything into ashes.
• Everything and anything that can be burnt was fried in the fiery cauldron of yellow flames. Smoke and sparks were whirling in all direction. The sharp shrill of alarm reverberated through the whole building.
Posted by Overwhelmed. at12:19 AM
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Labels: Fire
Fire is something very dangerous and should be taken very seriously. In literal meaning, it is the rapid oxidation of a material in an exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, bright light and by-products like char.
Having learned what is fire, let’s see some fire adjectives and vocabulary words related to fire and heat.
Adjectives Words to Describe Fire
Today we’ll have a look at around 50 most used words to describe the hot nature of fire like lava, flame, livid, sparkle, searing etc.
We haven’t posted about the fire that is wrecking a path of devastation in our home country, because we are a peculiar combination of sad, mad and proud about what is happening and the response on the ground.
It is personal.
We know people being affected day in and day out. Family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors.
We know the places being scourged. We’ve laughed in those spots, taken a stroll, saw them pass by our car window as we gazed into the landscape.
We are saddened by the tremendous loss of life. The images of people fleeing, animals perishing and the trees engulfed in flames will forever haunt us.
We are mad by the denial of the cause and the insanity to think this won’t keep happening. We are mad that there are other fires, affecting other homes, burning across the planet, charring the earth.
Yet, we are proud of our fellow citizens rushing in to fight the fires, to save the animals to rescue those stranded, to condemn those that say this is normal. This is not normal.
We want to thank everyone who has reached out and asked how we are doing. It means a great deal. We won’t stay sad and we won’t stay mad, we will go back to being hopeful. We hope this is a wake-up call. That the practices that led to the fires will be questioned. That those denying climate change will be drowned out by the voices that speak for the billions of animals that perished, by the voices that speak for the scarred earth and the life below the surface, and by the voices that speak for the air we breathe.
Since ancient times, humans have known about fire. We have feared it, welcomed its warmth, and harnessed its power.
John Wesley said that if you catch on fire, people will come for miles to see you burn. He understood the intrinsic attraction flames represent for most people.
The Greek philosopher Plutarch said that the mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
One of Ray Bradbury’s characters in Fahrenheit 451 voiced his thoughts about fire: “It’s perpetual motion; the thing man wanted to invent but never did. … If you let it go on, it’d burn our lifetimes out. … It’s a mystery. … Its real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences. … Antibiotic, aesthetic, practical.”
Would your WIP benefit from a few flames?
Adjectives
Careful selection of adjectives reveals opinions.
An arsonist might refer to a structure fire as irresistible, majestic, or resplendent. However, a fire fighter might view it as catastrophic, devastating, or uncontrolled. Maybe a couple in love would gaze at the flames in a fireplace and consider them beautiful, cheerful, or romantic. An ancient priest? Perhaps his fire is ceremonial, holy, or sacred.
Choose descriptors with care, researching the definitions if necessary. For example, pyrotechnic refers to grandiose displays such as fireworks or a rock band’s lightshow, while pyrotechny, although sometimes used interchangeably with pyrotechnic, more correctly refers to the use of fire in alchemy.
Beware flammable and inflammable. Some readers will think the first word means “to catch fire easily” while the second means “impervious to fire.” But these words share the same definition: “easily set on fire.” Better to stick with straightforward words such as combustible and fireproof.
In addition to the words in the following list, you can create many adjectives by adding -ing or -ed suffixes to verbs.
A and B
ablaze, accidental, aflame, alight, angry, benign, beautiful, blinding, bright, brilliant, brisk, brutal
C
capricious, catastrophic, celestial, ceremonial, cheerful, cheery, chemical, clean-burning, cleansing, close, coal, cold, concentrated, constant, contained, cozy, cruel
D
dangerous, dead, deadly, deliberate, deliberately set, dense, destructive, devastating, disastrous, distant, divine, dormant
E
effulgent, electrical, elemental, empyreal, endless, enraged, erratic, ethereal, everlasting, evil, expansive, explosive
F to H
feeble, fiendish, fierce, forked, furious, gas, ghostly, glorious, greedy, harmless, hazardous, heavenly, hellish, historic, holy, huge, hungry
I
impure, incandescent, incessant, indefatigable, ineffectual, inefficient, infernal, infinite, innocuous, insatiable, intense, invincible, invisible, irresistible
L and M
latent, life-threatening, liquid, live, luminous, magical, majestic, malevolent, malignant, massive, memorable, merciless, molten, monstrous, murderous, mystical
N to P
noiseless, noisy, open, out-of-control, Pentecostal, perpetual, persistent, phantom, phosphorous, pitiless, pleasant, portentous, potent, purgatorial, purposeless, pyrotechnic
Q and R
quenchless, radiant, radioactive, random, rapid, ravenous, raw, red-hot, relentless, resplendent, righteous, rolling, romantic, ruthless
S
sacred, sacrificial, savage, silent, sinister, slow, sluggish, small, smokeless, sporadic, subterranean, sulfurous, suspicious, swift
T and U
terrible, thermonuclear, thick, torrid, unceasing, uncontrollable, uncontrolled, unending, unexpected, unholy, unquenchable, unremitting, untamed, useful, useless
V and W
vehement, vicious, vigorous, volatile, volcanic, wanton, warm, wasteful, wayward, welcome, white-hot, widespread, wild, wondrous, wood-burning, wrathful
Find thousands of writing tips and word lists in
The Writer’s Lexicon series
and additional resources on my Facebook page.
–
Similes and Metaphors
Many similes and metaphors border on cliché. Try to replace them with more direct terms (except in dialogue). For example:
Hot as fire: blistering, boiling, broiling, searing, sizzling, torrid
Like a house on fire: fast, speedy; dynamic, robust, vigorous
Spread like wildfire: disseminate or circulate rapidly
Fire of passion: ardor, fervor, fever, hunger, lust
Fiery anger: fury, outrage, rage, wrath
Colors
Many fuels produce colorful flames. Pyrotechnic displays take advantage of this fact.
Blue: butane, copper chloride (cuprous chloride)
Green: borax, (laundry additive, ant traps), boric acid, copper sulfate (cupric sulfate)
Orange: calcium chloride, sodium chloride (table salt)
Pink: potassium chloride
Red: lithium chloride, strontium chloride, strontium nitrate
Yellow: barium chloride
Carbon monoxide burns orange or yellow, whereas a properly functioning gas stove will burn blue. Hot candle flames are light blue, cooling to yellow, then orange, and finally, red.
See also 1000+ Ways to Describe Colors.
Verbs (1)
Characters and/or objects might:
- add paper, coal, or wood to a fire
- blow on a fire
- build a fire
- bury a fire, embers, or coals
- cast fireballs
- cloak a fire
- conceal a fire
- cook over a fire
- cuddle next to a fire
- discharge tendrils of fire
- douse a fire with water, dirt, or sand
- dry hair, body, or clothing in front of a fire
- escape a fire
- extinguish a fire with water, dry chemicals, or sand
- fan a fire
- feed a fire
- fight a fire
- find a fire (perhaps by monitoring thermal images from an aircraft)
- fireproof an object
- fling fireballs
- fling tendrils of fire
- gaze into a fire
- hurl fireballs
- ignite a fire
- kindle a fire
- light a fire
- nestle next to a fire
- put out a fire
- quench a fire
- set fire to something
- set something ablaze, aflame, or afire
- shoot fiery arrows
- snuff out a fire
- snuggle in front of a fireplace
- spit-roast meat over an open fire or hot coals
- squat next to a fire
- stare into a fire
- stir a fire
- stoke a fire
- tend to a fire
- throw wet sacks over a fire
- torture someone with fire
- toss something into a fire
- warm oneself by a fire
- watch a fire
- worship fire
Find thousands of writing tips and word lists in
The Writer’s Lexicon series
and additional resources on my Facebook page.
–
Verbs (2)
Fire or flames might:
A and B
advance, ascend, assault, attack, bake, belch, besiege, blacken, blanket, blast, blaze, blister, blossom, blow out, boil, burn (down, out), burst (out, through)
C
carbonize, cascade, cast a glow, catch, cavort, char, chase, cleanse, combust, confuse, consume, cook, coruscate, cover, crackle, creep, cremate
D and E
damage, dance, decimate, deflagrate, deluge, destroy, devour, die, eat, embrace, engulf, enkindle, explode
F
fizzle (out), flame (out, up), flare (up), flash, flicker, fly, follow, frighten, fulgurate
G to I
glare, gleam, glow, gorge, grope (for), gush (up), harden, heat, hiss, hurdle, hurtle, ignite, illuminate, immolate, incinerate, inundate, invite
K to M
kill, kindle, lap, lash, leap (into life), lick, light (up), linger, loom, mesmerize, move
O to R
overtake, overwhelm, play, pop, purify, race, radiate, rage, rampage, reach (for), retreat, rip through, roar, roast
S
scintillate, scorch, sear, shoot, simmer, singe, sizzle, smoke, smolder, snake through, snap, spark, speed, spill, splutter, spread, sputter, start, surge, swallow, sweep (over, through), swelter, swirl
T to W
tear through, threaten, twinkle, wander, whip, whisper
Many water words can also be applied to fire.
Nouns
There is a huge difference between a campfire and a wildfire, a fireball and a firestorm. A few nouns that could replace fire include:
A to W
avalanche of flames, ball of fire, blaze, bonfire, brushfire, bushfire, campfire, conflagration, curtain of flames, fireball, firestorm, flames, forest fire, grassfire, inferno, sea of flames, sheet of flames, tsunami of flames, wall of flames, wildfire
Props
Props, whether objects, events, or people, add to a storyline:
A
accelerant, alarm, alert, ambulance, arson, arsonist, ash, ax
B
backdraft, barbecue, barricade, bellows, blister, blowtorch, boiler, bomb, bottle bomb, brazier, broiler, bucket brigade, burns, bush, butane
C
C-4, candle, chain reaction, charcoal, chemicals, chimney, cigarette butt, cinders, clinkers, coal, combustibles, combustion, cookstove, cremation
D and E
dynamite, embers, EMT, explosives
F
fire brigade, fire department, fire eater, fire escape, fire extinguisher, fire hose, fire insurance, fire pumps, fire ring, fire screen, fire striker, fire trench, fire triangle, fire warden, fire watch, firebrand, firebreak, firebug, firecrackers, firedamp, firefighter, fireplace, firestop, fire-suppression system, fireworks, flame-keeper, flamethrower, flammability, flash, flashover, flashpoint, flint, foam, fuel, fumes, furnace
G and H
gas, gas lamp, gas leak, gas stove, gasses, glare, glow, grill, halon, hearth, heat, heat sensor, heat signature, heater, heat-resistant clothing or uniform, hellfire, hoops of fire, hose, hose nozzle, hydrant, hydrazine
I to K
IED, ignition, illusionist, incandescence, incendiary device, infrared energy, insurance adjustor, insurance investigator, intensity, investigation, jet, jet fuel, kerosene, kerosene heater, kiln, kindling
L to N
laser, lava, lighter, lighter fluid, lightning, logs, luminosity, magician, magnesium, matches, meth lab, microwave oven, Molotov cocktail, napalm, natural gas, necromancer, nitroglycerine
O and P
oast, odor, oil, oil drum, oil tanker, origin, oven, paramedic, petrol, petrol bomb, petroleum, plasma, police, potassium, prevention, propane, propane tank, pyre, pyromania, pyrophobia, pyrotechny
R
rescue vehicle, retardant, risk, rocket, Roman candle
S
sacrifice, shovel, siren, smell, smoke, smoke detector, smoke signals, soot, sorcerer, sparks, sparkler, speed, spontaneous combustion, sprinkler system, sprinklers, suppressant, swath
T to V
thermal camera, thermal imager, thermal images, thermal radiation, tinder, TNT, toaster, toaster oven, torch, trees, trench, victims, volcano, volunteers
W to Z
warlock, water main, welder’s mask, wick, witch, wizard, wood, woodpile, zip fuel
Clichés and Idioms
Too many repetitions of fire in your WIP? Locate phrases such as the following and replace them with shorter alternatives.
fire in one’s blood: ardor, fervor, passion, zeal
fire of life: elan, enthusiasm, gusto, vigor, vivacity
to fight fire with fire: counter, fight back, get even, retaliate
to go up in flames: be destroyed, burn, combust, disappear, explode
to light a fire under: coerce, impel, induce, prod, push, urge
to pass through the fire: desensitize, harden, inure, test, toughen
to play with fire: endanger, gamble, jeopardize, risk
too many irons in the fire: inundated, overwhelmed, swamped
trial by fire: gauntlet, ordeal, stress, test
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