In external chemical vapor deposition processes including VAD and OVD the distribution of flame-synthesized silica particles is determined by heat and mass transfer limitations to particle formation. Combustion gas flow velocities are such that the particle diffusion time scale is longer than that of gas flow convection in the zone of particle formation. The consequence of these effects is that the particles formed tend to remain along straight smooth flow stream lines. Silica particles are formed due to oxidation and hydrolysis. In the hydrolysis, the particles are formed in diffuse bands and particle formation thus requires the diffusion of SiCl$\_$4/ toward CH$\_$4//O$\_$2/ combustion zone to react with H$\_$2/O diffusing away from these same zones on the torch face. The conversion kinetics of hydrolysis is fast compared to diffusion and the rate of conversion is thus diffusion-limited. In the language of combustion, the hydrolysis occurs as a Burke-Schumann process. In selected conditions, reaction zone shape and temperature distributions predicted by the Burke-Schumann analysis are introduced and compared with experimental data available. The calculated centerline temperatures inside the reaction zone agree well with the data, but the calculated values outside the reaction zone are a little higher than the data since the analysis does not consider diffusion in the axial direction and mixing of the combustion products with ambient air. The temperatures along the radial direction agree with the data near the centerline, but gradually diverge from the data as the distance is away from the centerline. This is caused by the convection in the radial direction, which is not considered in the analysis. Spatial distribution of silica particles are affected by convection and diffusion, resulting in a Gaussian form in the radial direction.