As part of the kit carried by Orc raiders during the First Age, their equipment included a flammable substance to aid them in their destructive missions. What this substance contained was a mystery - some said it might be brimstone - but its effect was well known. Once a fire was set with this material, it became all but inextinguishable, and so Orc-fires of this kind were a terror to the Men of the northern lands in their wooden homes.
Notes
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Orc-fire seems to have been in widespread use by the invaders of Beleriand in the First Age, though our information comes from a single account of its use by raiders in the Forest of Brethil. We have no record of it being used after the end of the First Age. This may imply that the secret of its making was lost in the fall of Angband, or it may have remained in common use, but simply been irrelevant to our scarce later accounts of Orcs and their doings.
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