Fire-fighters enter a burning building after an incendiary bombing in France, during World War I. In the photograph a man stands silhouetted in the window of a burning building as he attempts to douse the flames with a hose. Two other men stand beneath the window feeding the hose to their colleague. Incendiary shells, packed with flammable chemicals which would spread fire when detonated, were among the most destructive weapons of World War I.<br><p>It is not clear from this close-up photograph whether the men pictured are actually trained fire-fighters or merely desperate civilians using fire-fighting equipment. A longer shot of the same scene, also held by the National Library of Scotland, makes clearer the presence of other people determined to save their property.<br><br>
[Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. The effects of an incendiary shell. Civilians saving their property near the line.']<br></p>
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1918-01-01 00:00:00
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