The damages caused by the flash of heat and blast were aggravated
by subsequent fires. These leveled neighborhoods where the blast had inflicted
only partial damage. In total, 12,900 houses were completely burned or destroyed
and another 5,509 were partially burned or destroyed. The fire also increased
the number of victims. Many people trapped under fallen debris had suffered only
external injuries but died as the fires raged through the city.
The gutted ruins of the Iwakawa-machi neighborhood
About
800 meters south of the hypocenter. The lush roadside trees in this quiet residential
neighborhood burned to ashes. The explosion had completely buried the road in
rubble.
(Photograph by Torahiko Ogawa)
The devastation near Nagasaki Medical College
About
600 meters east-southeast of the hypocenter. Except for a few reinforced-concrete
structures, the buildings to the upper left were completely destroyed and burned.
The building to the lower right is the Nagasaki Medical College Hospital.
(U.S.
Army Institute of Pathology Photographs)