§ Mr. Wootton-Daviesasked the Home Secretary whether since the new training film for fire-fighters, which has been shown at the Ministry of Information and is called "Fire Guard," shows that the jet of the stirrup pump should be used directly on the bomb and not the spray, he will- give wide publicity to the fact as it is in direct contradiction to the instructions formerly given?
§ Mr. H. MorrisonFull particulars of the change in procedure recommended for dealing with incendiary bombs are included in A.R.P. Handbooks No. 9 (2nd edition) and No. 14, and in a reprint of the booklet "Air Raids—What you must know," all of which are in the press and will be issued shortly. The modification of the advice that the spray should be used for dealing with the bomb and the jet for extinguishing the fire caused by the bomb is based on the following considerations:522W
- (a) The necessity for speed when a number of bombs fall simultaneously on one building or where numbers of bombs have to be dealt with by a single fire party: Experience has shown that in many cases in spite of the fact that fire parties have been able to cope with many bombs, the fires caused by others have got out of hand, especially when incendiary bombs are dropped in large numbers from containers. Moreover, it has been found that the risk of injury to personnel from molten particles of magnesium scattered by the jet is not great and would be far more than counterbalanced by the saving of time effected and the risk of a possible conflagration avoided.
- (b) The introduction of the explosive incendiary bomb.
When a bomb has fallen in a position where it is imperative that it should be tackled immediately, it is important to take as much cover as possible in case it is of the explosive type. The jet in such cases has advantages over the spray, because being effective from a longer range, the chances of injury from a fragment of steel are much reduced and a greater choice of cover is likely to be available. Further by freely scattering the molten magnesium and by its cooling action, the water jet may even serve to prevent the explosion of the capsule. Accordingly in cases where speed is the governing factor, or whenever a bomb must be tackled at once with the stirrup hand-pump, the jet should be used instead of the spray. There may be occasions when the spray should be used in preference to the jet, for example, where there is highly inflammable material close by and it would in consequence be dangerous to risk the scattering of molten magnesium.