INCENDIARY DEVICE

Incendiary device

Incendiary device

An incendiary device is any mechanical, electrical, or chemical device used intentionally to initiate combustion and start a fire (Emergency Management Institute, 1994). Incendiary devices used as weapons of war. Heavy use can cause Feuersturm, a flashover of the air destroying large areas, as in the strategic bombing allies of World War II in Germany and Japan. These also can be used to clean an area, for example, for the deforestation of the enemy camp, as was the case in Viet Nam during the intervention of the United States. This type of weapon is traditionally made from napalm, thermite, chlorine tri-fluoride and white phosphorus (Burdick, 1997).

Structure of the Device

Incendiary device measuring only about six inches in length, one-half inch in thickness and one and one half inches in width, this mechanism is small enough to be easily concealed on the person. Its weight of slightly more than two ounces in no way detracts from its portability. If intact, this instrument can be recognized by its colorful red pasteboard wrapper which encloses a transparent plastic envelope (Richard, 1961). Printed on this wrapper in eleven different European languages are the following words, "This is quite safe to handle. Tear the package off the card and hide it. The plastic container, which smells like a phenol-formaldehyde condensation product, is about four fifths filled with a viscous yellow liquid. The remaining fifth occupied by the ignition mechanism. It is housed in three short pieces of tubing, which joined together to form a continuous cylinder of uniform diameter extending the full length of the envelope. The position of the copper tube, marked by two bands of red stain, is at one end of the unit. Adjoining it, in the center section, is a light colored metal sleeve through which inserted the soft ...