Burning vs aflame

'He looked up to see one of the police vehicles aflame and another car burning.'
Did the author alternate between 'burning' and 'aflame' just to bring a variety of adjectives into his writing, or because there is a distinct difference between the two?

I think that you are right. People try to vary their speech and use different adjectives, and even play around with word order so as to make what they are saying more interesting.


.....so as to make what they are saying more interesting.


Initially I was going to say: .....in order to make what they say more interesting.


But to use the word 'order' so soon after I had already used it, would have created a certain confusion of meaning.



.......and even play around with word order so as to make what they are saying more interesting.


.......and even play around with word order in order to make what they are saying more interesting.

I think he was mainly just varying his language, but there is a slight difference. "Burning" just means engaged in combustion, while "aflame" means in flames. Something can burn without a significant amount of flames, and something can have flames without burning.