This paper is aimed to demonstrate an opportunity of the generation of wall-free non-stationary fire whirls under laboratory conditions without using mechanical swirling devices and estimation of their integral parameters. A simple experimental facility making possible the generation of concentrated fire vortex structures by means of combustion of solid fuel (urotropine) arranged symmetrically on a metallic underlying surface is described. With the use of photography, some data on the generation conditions and integral parameters (lifetime, height, and diameter) of fire whirls have been determined. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.