We investigate some statistical properties of soft X‐ray bursts produced by solar flares. The Probability Density Functions (PDFS) of soft X‐ray intensity fluctuations are shown to display wide, non‐gaussian tails. The shape of the PDFs is nearly unchanged as the timelag, used to calculate fluctuations, varies. A very similar behavior is found for PDFs of energy dissipation fluctuations in a shell model of Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. Recalling also that both flare soft X‐ray bursts and dissipative bursts in the MHD shell model are characterized by a power law distribution for waiting times between successive bursts, we suggest that the results shown in this paper support the idea that solar flares could represent bursty dissipative events of MHD turbulence. © 2003 American Institute of Physics