John Ward 

How to Extinguish an Incendiary Bomb

By Actiondesk Sheffield

How To Extinguish an Incendiary Bomb

During the Sheffield Blitz, we were all waiting in the cellar after the air raid sirens sounded, we being the four children and Mum (Dad was away working). We heard a disturbance at the front of the house and Mum went up to see what it was, we were told to stay in the cellar, but we crept up and watched. We could see flames through the glass in the front door and as Mother opened the door, we saw a burning incendiary bomb on the front step. The bomb was one of two in their garden the rest of the ‘bread basket’, a cluster of bombs dropped all together, landed in Clifton Park.

When Mother saw the burning bomb, she went straight to the kitchen to get a bucket of water to put on the bomb. On the way she stumbled against the bucket of slack – a sort of coal, mostly dust, which was all they could get for the fire. She realised that the dust would put out the fire better than water, so her quick thinking saved the day. All this was accompanied by the sound of bombs dropping on Sheffield.


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