The Demon King Ravana orders Hanuman’s tail be lit on fire. As Ravana’s forces try to wrap cloth around his tail, Hanuman begins to lengthen it. After frustrating them for a while, he allows it to burn. He then escapes from his captors with his tail on fire and burns down large parts of Lanka.
Reading the stories from the Ramayana, it always fascinated me that one monkey could cause so much destruction to an entire city all on his own. That combined with being impervious to fire created a very powerful symbolism.