I’ve read that, besides killing people through conventional means, thermobaric bombs will also kill by asphyxiation. Given that it takes quite a bit of time for someone to die that way, why doesn’t air rush right in a la lightning/thunder to fill the vacuum in time to allow the victim to breathe again?
The problem is less asphyxiation due to consumption of the air (although sucking the air out of underground shelters certainly can cause secondary asphyxiation which certainly happens in firestorms caused by incendiary bombing) than the effects of the overpressure wave on the body, specifically rupturing internal organs and causing pneumothorax (air forced into the pleural space either by penetrating trauma or rupture of the lungs resulting in a buildup of pressure that collapses one or both lungs). There is a reason that fuel-air explosives are often called “the poor despot’s nuke”.
A brief summary of the effects of thermobaric weapons on unprotected people.
Stranger