Firefighter's lake-jumping escape from fire tornado caught on video

ST. ALBERT, Alberta, April 18 (UPI) -- A Canadian firefighter's narrow escape from a fire tornado by jumping into an Alberta lake was caught on camera by a witness.

The video, recorded by witness Diane Logan and posted to Facebook by St. Albert Fire Services, shows the fire tornado -- or "firenado" -- moving along the edge of Big Lake in St. Albert, Alberta, while firefighters flee from its path.

A lone firefighter can be seen at the end of the video emerging from the cloud of smoke around the twister and jumping into the lake.

The firefighter, Vincent Pashko, said he got separated from the rest of his fire crew while battling the blaze.

"My head was the opposite direction of the wind storm because I was trying to pull hose over to the [other] side so it didn't burn up and we'd have hose to be able to apply to the rest of the fire," Pashko told CTV News. "When the guys screamed 'watch out,' I turned around and all I could see was just a huge wall of black ash ... and then I just felt the heat come up from behind and I could feel that I was starting to burn up."

Pashko said he rushed toward the water.

"I just went kind of face first [into] the lake and my face was quite hot [and] the back of my ears were quite hot," he said.

Pashko suffered minor burns to his ears.

Firefighters said the incident began as a grass fire sparked by an out-of-control campfire.