New video of St. Albert 'fire tornado' shows firefighter's dramatic escape

A second video of last week's astonishing "fire tornado" shows new and dramatic footage of the dangerous and rare event.

This time, the camera was in the hands of Stuart Loomis, an environmental planner from St. Albert.

From the opposite shore of Big Lake, he filmed the scene as firefighter Vincent Pashko jumped into the water to escape a raging grass fire.

This latest video came to light just days after footage shot by Diane Logan went viral around the globe.

Massive 'fire tornado' caught on camera

9 years ago

Duration 0:44

Last week a giant 'fire tornado' formed in St. Albert. Diane Logan was able to capture this video while firefighters fled from the funneled black smoke and ash.

Logan told her story to CBC News on Tuesday.

She was driving home from work with her husband on the night of April 14 when she saw thick, dark smoke along the horizon over Big Lake, fed by the Sturgeon River northwest of Edmonton.

Concerned about wildlife in the area, Logan pulled over to investigate.

What first looked like little more than a nearly extinguished grassfire, soon transformed into something much more foreboding.

"It was this huge black funnel cloud with these raging flames behind it. It was terrifying," Logan said during an interview on CBC Radio's Edmonton AM. "I turned my camera to try and get a better look and it just picked up, and we saw there were several firefighters off to the left. And me and my husband were standing there in shock."

The swirl of ash and smoke was advancing along the bank, and firefighter Vincent Pashko was directly in its path.

"He was unaware of what was coming up behind him, and it just swarmed around him. We were just panic-stricken," said Logan.

Pashko managed to outrun the flames, but was forced to jump into the river to escape the heat.

"We felt relief at seeing him escape," said Logan. "But then we realized that it was heading straight for us, so we bolted."

After Logan shared the video with the St. Albert Fire Department it was picked up by news agencies across the globe and viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

"It just spread like wildfire. I've seen it on stations in India, Russia, the UK, everywhere but Russia I think," said Logan, who hopes the video serves as a reminder of the dangers posed by wildfire.

"It's educational in my mind, for people to see this, that any fire is much more dangerous than you can ever know. It could turn into something like this.

"I think it will show people that they can't take any fire for granted."