Reply #59: Why You Feel, Ma'am, That Fire-Storm 'Doesn't Compare' To Atomic Detonation Quite Escapes Me

[The Magistrate]

Incineration is a pretty gruesome form of death, and in the fire-storm attacks in Germany and Japan were included many refinements such as slow roasting in cellar shelters and boiling in streams and pools. Temperatures sufficient to spontaneously combust clothing a considerable distance from flame were reached; lungs were scorched by inhalation of the heated air. Many lingered in great pain from burns until dying; many suffered life-long respiratory illnesses from inhalation of hot soots. The largest proportion of deaths from the atomic blasts were immediate, occurring in a few seconds at most; there is little death of that sort in fire-storm.