I think a lot of the people are under estimating a wild fire and overestimating a city fire.
It might help if they thought about the available fuel for the fire.
Forest fires are big because they have a lot of fuel, but people usually discount prairie fires because they just have grass to burn.

I have seen a prairie fire (after, not during) where the wires and glass insulators were melted off the telephone poles.

California has brush cover about half way between a forest and a prairie for fuel, all bone dry and any fire usually has a dry warm wind to start pushing it.

Dresden was a city with a lot of wood buildings.
The fuel density might have matched a small forest fire, but it was likely quite a bit lower.
When you count stone buildings, streets and parks then Dresden likely matches the California Canyon brush fires..

Now what was that temperature you quoted in your comment about the Australian bush fires and them qualifying as fire storms?
I will go get it and add it to my comment.

Edit: This part.


The parts of Canberra that fire burned through were a lot like California suburbs if I remember the news clips right.