Pillars of fire came out from so called East africa rift which did open
at that time.

As You can see, rift goes in the bottom of the Red sea, from here the
opening of sea in your texts, as after volcanic eruption along the rift
the sea probably was quite shallow or even dry for some time.

I am not sure if the timing You consider is right, but the place
definitely is.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/East_Africa.html

As to gods purpose, he does what he has to do ( volcanic catastrophes
are preprogrammed) but we humans have to understand what laws govern
them - and escape.

Unfortunately we have lost that knowledge and currenstly do not have.

Jehosaphat wrote:

A long time ago some people called Hebrews were trying to flee from
Egypt because of a labor dispute and union busting tactics set forth
by the king of Egypt Ramses.  God (or Yahweh as some call him) opened
up the sea so these people could be free, rained plagues upon the
Egyptians, and attacked Egyptian troops with a Pillar of fire oh and
lets not forget about the slaying of the first born son of
non-believers...
Now, with that scenario out of the way, it is possible to observe all
of this from affair - looking at the whole picture.

The world these days seems to be troubled on almost an apocalyptic
tide that is increasing day by day.  Many of you want to know "Where
the hell is my frickin pillar of fire?"  Good question... I too have
been wondering that lately, where the hell is this deity god and why
isn't he putting a stop to idiots fighting in his name?

The BOOK of Jehosephat perhaps shows some insight:
Verse .01 -2
"On that day God sat and kicked back,
Lord of the overall everything wanted a tall one.
It bubbled and fizzed and he tasted the cool hops upon his divine
lips,
The deity wondered what was on the television."

Does this mean God, Allah, Yahweh, Buddha or whoever is in charge up
(down?) there has forgotten about the humans on earth?  No, but
everything needs a break from a bunch of whining crying children - and
a beer did God good.  Hopefully he will wake up in time before we are
all dust - and hopefully he won't have a hangover.  Until then, we
just have to wait, it would be nice to see a pillar of fire and frogs
rain from the sky... 

Jehosephat.