Charles Ellicott Commentary Numbers 11:2

"And the people cried unto Moses; and Moses prayed unto Jehovah, and the fire abated." — Numbers 11:2 (ASV)

The fire was quenched.— Better, subsided or sunk down. No precise information is given as to the extent of the fire, or as to the objects which it destroyed. It broke out in the extremity of the encampment, and it was arrested in its progress at the supplication of Moses. It seems, however, more probable that it consumed some of the Israelites themselves, than that it consumed only some of their tents. Some suppose that the reference is to the simoom, or fiery south wind, which sometimes blows in the Eastern desert, and which stifles those over whom it sweeps.