Fire and Smoke

See Also: TOBACCO

1. Blaze like a box of matches —Joseph Conrad
2. (His house) burned like a candle —Sholom Aleichem
3. A cloud of black soot stood in it [a room] like a fairy-tale monster in a thick wood —Boris Pasternak
4. A flame as clear as a streetlight —Cynthia Ozick
5. The flame reared like the trunk of an animal —Steve Erickson
6. Flames fluttered like a school of fishes —Saul Bellow
7. (Suddenly the) flame shot up, leaping like a dancer in the air —Alix Kates Shulman
8. Oily flames curl like hair —Jean Thompson
9. Ribbons of flame slithered like orange serpents across the … floor —Paul Kuttner
10. The smoke ascended in a straight column, as though from a pagan altar —Isaac Bashevis Singer
11. Smoke flared through his nostrils like an old painting of a dragon —David Brierly
12. Smoke in the air like fog on the New Jersey flats —Carlos Baker
13. Smoke (from his clay pipe) lay on the air like tule fog in a marsh —Bill Pronzini
14. Smoke puffed from her nostril like a tiny exhaust —Ross Macdonald
15. Smoke rose … like a snake —Hugh Walpole
16. (In June when earth) smokes like slag —James Wright
17. Smoke … spread itself out like an infernal sort of cloud —Joseph Conrad
18. Smouldering embers of a fire blinked like red eyes —Ellen Glasgow
19. [Earth and night] smoulder like the slow, curing fire of a Javanese head-shrinker —Ted Hughes
20. Sparks flew against the [fireplace] screen like imprisoned birds —Margaret Millar