| (3)Damage
due to High-temperature Fires |
The intense heat rays emitted by the explosion caused
the wood and paper houses and anything burnable in the downtown area to
burst into flame. Fires were also started by toppled kitchen stoves. The
city-wide conflagration reached its peak between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00-3:00
p.m., but fires continued to burn intensely all day.
Most combustible material within approximately
2 km of the hypocenter was burned to cinders and ash. The extreme heat
melted glass and metal like lava. When the flames died away, the city was
nothing but a scorched plain stretching out in all directions. |
| ++The Fury of the Conflagration++ |
Fires broke out immediately in the houses close to the
hypocenter. The flames quickly spread to all parts of the city, which continued
to burn all day with unbelievable ferocity. The whole area within a radius
of 2 kilometers from the hypocenter was completely incinerated. Countless
people died where they fell when the bomb exploded, or else under the ruins
of their houses.
The fires began to spread at around 9 a.m. and burned most furiously
from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The violent fire consumed everything, though the
flames began to weaken before darkness came. In some places the flames
were still rising for several days.
Photo:Mitsunobu Kishida |