Original 1947 Associated Press wire photo measuring 9 x 8 inches overall and mounted on black archival paper. The original caption is separate from the photograph. This dramatic image shows a massive rubber dump fire at Carshalton Road and Mitcham Junction in Surrey, England, on June 5, 1947. Fueled by an intense heat wave, the blaze produced the largest column of smoke seen over London since the German Blitz of World War II. Thousands of discarded tires burned as towering black smoke spread across the skyline, creating one of Britain's most memorable postwar fire scenes. From the archive of a Pittsburgh area newspaper.
