inferno

noun

Etymology: From Italian inferno (“hell”), from Latin infernus (“of the lower regions”), inferna (“the lower regions”); see infernal. The meaning "big fire" came as a figurative use from the traditional idea of hellfire.

1. A place or situation resembling Hell.

   “At each sudden explosion in the inferno below they sprang back from the brink [of the volcanic crater].”

   “When Jurgis had first inspected the packing plants with Szedvilas, he […] found that each one of these lesser industries was a separate little inferno, in its way as horrible as the killing beds, the source and fountain of them all[, and t]he workers in each of them had their own peculiar diseases.”

2. A large fire; a conflagration.

   “The inferno ripped through the forest, destroying anything in its path.”

   “Blast after blast, fiery outbreak after fiery outbreak, like a flaming barrage from within,[…]most of Edison's grounds soon became an inferno. As though on an incendiary rampage, the fires systematically devoured the contents of Edison's headquarters and facilities.”