A campfire caught mid-dance: one tall flame in the middle, two sparks leaping at its sides. The scribes drew fire the way you see it at night — always moving, never the same shape twice. Under other characters it flattens into four little flames (灬), quietly cooking hundreds of words.
A piece of culture
Fire medicine: gunpowder Around the 9th century, Taoist alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality mixed saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal — and invented gunpowder instead. The Chinese name is 火药, "fire medicine". It became one of the Four Great Inventions (with paper, printing, and the compass), and its first beloved use was fireworks: loud, bright fire to chase away evil spirits at new year — a tradition that still lights up the sky today.
Use it in a real word
火山
huǒshān · fo2 saan1
volcano — literally "fire mountain", and you already know both halves