fire conducts electricity?

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Beans45601-at-aol-dot-com>

Okay, I was trying to light my blow torch (not like the blow torch that had the
tank of oxygen and take of fuel, just a little handheld one. Not sure if those
are called blow torches also...) a couple of days ago. Well, I didn't want to
use a match, they smell, and I didn't have a lighter. So, I decided to use my
tesla coil (I am sure it was not the smartest thing to do). Anyway, I stood on
a big plastic bucket to get my self off the ground, then turned on the gas and
held it up to the tesla coil. Well, it light (big suprise) and I noticed
something weird, the sparks from my tesla coil were jumping to the fire, not to
the tip of the blow torch, but the fire. And I was thoroughly amazed! Okay,
what is happening here? does fire really conduct electricity, or is it
something else I didn't think about?

Thanks
Adam