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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- It's the traumatic video that put the Waldo Canyon Fire into perspective.

Firefighters working together, trying to save homes and get a hold of the most destructive fire in Colorado history.

Crews battling more than extreme heat and high winds, they were fighting Mother Nature and a "plume dominated fire" that was generating its own weather.

"It became apparent on the 26th that this was not so much a fire event as a weather event and it was the weather that created the perfect fire storm," Steve Schopper, of the Colorado Springs Fire Department said.

It's Mother Nature that would make the biggest impact as she pushed the Waldo Canyon Fire through Queens Canyon.

You can see from a video time lapse, of the Tuesday the first property was destroyed, that a weather system is moving in behind the plume of smoke

So, instead of shooting straight up it goes horizontal as the thunderstorm and fire plume collapse, pushing 65 mile an hour wind in a 360 degree angle.

The worst case scenario had happened and firefighting turned into fire protection.

But what locals saw when they returned to their Westside homes wasn't complete destruction, some homes were still standing and looked as if they hadn't been untouched.

All due to the millions of embers creating spot fires, up to a mile ahead of the flame front, crews were fighting.

"I equate a wildland fire to a battle, you know who your enemy is and if you can't see your enemy you can't deal with your enemy," Schopper said.

It wasn't until the short wave infrared video was given to the fire department, two weeks after the Waldo Canyon Fire, that CSFD really knew what they were up against.

You can see as millions of embers are lifted into the plume and pushed hundreds of feet into the sky ahead of the fire.

It takes only 13 seconds for a tree sparked by an ember to go up in flames the same flames that would destroy 346 homes.

This invaluable video gives the men and women on the line a chance to see through the smoke they were fighting.