How to Drown a Bomb

Don't try to put out an incendiary bomb with a fine spray. Douse it with a strong stream of water from a hose.

Thus OCD last week reversed its No. 1 rule for fighting incendiaries, after new experiments at the Army's Civilian Protection School (in Maryland). Hitherto air-raid wardens and firefighters have been warned again & again that a solid stream of water played on an incendiary will produce a blinding explosion and sudden death.

Now they are told that a solid stream is far better than a spray because: 1) It extinguishes the bomb in only a few seconds instead of several minutes--and incendiaries are usually dropped in clusters, demand quick action.

2) Less than half as much water is needed.

3) The firefighter can play water on the bomb from a safer distance, and, if the bomb explodes, the stream from the hose will force the molten fragments away from him. Says OCD at last: "Exaggerated conception of the 'terrors' of the bomb has instilled unjustified fear." Previous misunderstanding of incendiaries derives from early experiments by British scientists, who studied the laboratory behavior of pure magnesium, which burns fiercely in water. The British concluded that magnesium incendiary bombs would behave the same way. But the metal in real bombs is only 80% magnesium. The rest is an alloy to make them tough enough to penetrate roofs. The alloyed magnesium burns much less intensely than the pure metal, which can take oxygen as readily from water as from air.

OCD also admitted that an even more heretical method of drowning an incendiary would work: shovel the bomb quickly into a full pail of water, where it will go out like a match. The Chicago Fire Department has been preaching this method for several months, while officials of the OCD and the Army's Chemical Warfare Service bluntly insisted that the Chicagoans were illadvised.

But the dump-it-in-a-bucket method has not been approved by OCD for civilian defense workers. Reason: OCD thinks that U.S. citizens, confronted with a real air raid, might not have the necessary coolness for such an aggressive technique.

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