Usage of character 火 and its friends

First let's watch a video about character 火 and its friends:

After watching above video, would you like to try to read the following passage?  ;-P  I am sure that you can recognize some of these words.

(Click the video under the passage, you'll hear the reading of it. )
今年夏天太炎热，城里发生了好几场大火。大火迅速蔓延，灭火器无法控制火势。因空气中的烟尘太重，一些人感染了肺炎。大家盼望着秋天的天气会好转。

(Click the video under the text, you'll hear the reading of the explanation. )
讲解 Explanation：

今年夏天太炎热  -->    This summer is too hot.
今年, this year; 夏天, summer; 太, too (much); 炎热, sizzling hot, blazing hot;

城里发生了好几场大火 -->    Quite a few place caught big fire in town.
城里, in town; 发生, happen, take place; 了, implies that action is done, past tense; 好几场, quite a few, 场 is a measure word for fire (disaster);  大火, big fire, fire (disaster);

大火迅速蔓延 -->   The fire spread very quickly.
大火, the big fire; 迅速, quickly; 蔓延, spread;

灭火器无法控制火势 -->    The fire extinguisher couldn't control the fire.
灭火器, fire extinguisher; 无法, have no way to do something; 控制, control; 火势, the tendency of the spreading of the fire;

因空气中的烟尘太重，一些人感染了肺炎。 -->  Some people got pneumonia because of the heavy smoke and dust in the air.
因 is short for 因为, because;  空气中, in the air; 烟尘, smoke and dust; 太, too (much); 重, heavy;  一些人, some people; 感染, be infected with; 肺炎, pneumonia; 


大家盼望着秋天的天气会好转。 -->  Everyone is hoping the weather will become better in autumn.
大家, everyone, all the people; 盼望, hope, wish; 着, implies progressive tense; 秋天, autumn; 天气, weather; 会, will; 好转, become better;

If you are interested about Chinese calligraphy, the following video will give more detail about how to write the character 火.
In this video, professor Tian talks about the basic stroke order in Chinese calligraphy and how to write fire in three different writing styles.

From the beginning to 11:50 covers the theory of stroke order in Chinese calligraphy. From 11:51 to the rest of the video covers how to write the character 火 in regular script, semi-cursive script, and cursive script.