Abstract Heating, gasifying and burning processes of a micro plastic-resin particle, which has a diameter of about 200 μm and is suddenly exposed to a hot oxidizing atmosphere, are observed and optically processed by combining a micro schlieren system with a high-speed CCD video camera. The following three devised approaches are introduced: the use of an oxidizing combustion gas downstream of a spark-ignited propane–air lean premixed flame as a sudden heat source, the use of a spherically reformed micro particle on a fine tungsten wire of 5 μm diameter, and the use of a simultaneous direct and schlieren optical system. The first technique realizes slow heating and enables a micro resin particle to undergo the same circumstances as those experienced by plastic-resin particles in the plastic-resin powder combustion. The second approach improves the accuracy and reproducibility of image processing, whereas the third optical system gives simultaneous pictures of the transparent visible image and the schlieren image around a micro resin particle of one heating process. The results show that there exists intense multiple internal bubbling, multiple micro explosions, multiple micro jets and micro diffusion flames, and that their existence exerts strong influences on gasification characteristics of a micro resin particle and results in a high burning rate constant.