How were cities firebombed during WWII?

During World War II, firebombing was a strategy used to cause widespread destruction in cities, primarily through the use of incendiary bombs. These bombs were designed to start massive fires, effectively burning out cities. Richard Rhodes, interviewed by Dwarkesh Patel, discussed how nearly every major city in Japan with a population above 50,000 had been burned out by the end of the war. Cities like Hiroshima and Nagasaki were notably spared from earlier bombings because they were reserved for testing the effects of atomic bombs. These atomic bombs, while recognized for their nuclear capability, essentially functioned like firebombs, intended to create massive fires just like the incendiary bombs previously used 1.