In the initial attack, Britain's Royal Air Force dropped about 1,360 tonnes of high-explosive bombs, followed by 1,090 tonnes of incendiary missiles. A second wave of RAF planes and a thud by U.S. bombers quickly followed. The one-two combination of explosive and incendiary bombs was enormously deadly. The explosives blew the roofs off buildings and the exposed timbers were set alight by the incendiary devices. This eventually created a self-sustaining firestorm with temperatures peaking at more than 1,500 C. The air above the bombed area became extremely hot, and thus rose quickly. Cold air from beyond the bombed zone then rushed in on ground level, sucking people into the fire "like leaves into an autumn bonfire," as one writer put it. Many who took shelter in cellars died of suffocation.
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