It was not energy weapons as the nutjobs claim. It was land mismanagement that allowed the West African Grass to become a problem.
Concerning the Dresden Firestorm:
Even at eight thousand feet, it was hot work for the RAF bomber crews. Thousand-degree heat scorched the bellies of the planes, and smoke rose to fifteen thousand feet, making the aviators wet with perspiration. The intensity of the firestorm below created superhot tornadoes, mile-high vortexes ripping oxygen from the air to feed their roaring, thermal engines. The torquing effect on the atmosphere hurled people, animals, and furniture skyward, up from a city that was falling down underneath them.
It was a firestorm. There is no mystery.
Zoom in with Google Earth, and look at the grass. Add a high dry wind caused by a typhoon hundreds of miles away. You get a fire that follows the ground.