FIGHTING THE BLAZEBLITZ

London has seen it this bad only once since the Great Fire of 1666--month ago when the first great incendiary raid burned out blocks of the City, made night day and framed the dome of historic St. Paul's in a thick drapery of acrid smoke. Since then London has learned how to deal with the blazeblitz. The secret is to douse each bomb within a minute or two. The entire male civilian population between 16 and 60 has been conscripted for fire fighting. When the incendiaries fall, crackling into blue and rose-colored flares, crowds of householders in all stages of undress pop from doorways and pounce on the bombs. In some neighborhoods as many as 400 bombs per square mile have landed.

The simplest German incendiaries weigh about two pounds and are filled with thermite. There are four methods of putting them out. The first method is to smother them with the tin tops of garbage cans. But there are seldom enough covers for all the bombs, so everybody is now familiar with the second method, which is to smother them with sand and then spray them with a hand pump attached to a water bucket. A third fairly effective method for whiskey drinkers is to spray the bomb with a soda-water siphon. Fourth and most dangerous method, about to be demonstrated by the woman in the picture below, is to pick up the fin end of the bomb, whack it sharply on the ground and decapitate it. It takes about three minutes properly to extinguish a bomb by the first three methods. The fourth is instantaneous.

Now an incendiary raid provides fun and excitement in the long dull hours of blackout. Last week's two incendiary raids played to big enthusiastic audiences. Crowds gathered to watch and applaud the gyrating figures advancing with their garbage tops held like shields.

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