This is not new. Pyrocumulonimbus (misspelt in the article) clouds were observed starting fires through lightning in the 2009 Black Saturday fires in Australia,

This is not new. Pyrocumulonimbus (misspelt in the article) clouds were observed starting fires through lightning in the 2009 Black Saturday fires in Australia, most of which were nowhere near the coast. It was reported at the time in the local mass media, although possibly not by that name. Here's what Australia's Bureau of Meteorology has to say about pyrocumulonimbus: http://media.bom.gov.au/social/blog/1618/when-bushfires-make-their-own-weather/ http://media.bom.gov.au/social/blog/1618/when-bushfires-make... Chasing the links there, it appears there are academics involved in research into this scattered around the country. The BBC article does mention a couple of collaborations, but makes it sound like Castellnou is a one man band going around the world "investigating". Back to the BoM article, which was from 2018, and I think the "future" supercomputer it mentions for better modelling is now funded.