On June 8, 1972, Nick Ut who was working as a young photographer covering the Vietnam War for the Associated Press, took a picture of four Saigon children running down a highway screaming as a cloud of dust from a napalm bomb chases them.

The image, Terror of War, was credited with being an important juncture in turning public opinion against the Vietnam war, which ended 40 years ago with the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. It went on to earn Ut a Pulitzer Prize.

Ho Thi Hien the girl on the right of the image, now 56-years-old, runs a roadside cafe just steps away from where she grew up. But that day will be forever burned into her memory, “Every time I hear a plane,” she tells the Guardian, “I get scared.”

The central figure in the image is Ho’s cousin, Phuc, who had torn off all her clothing to “rid herself of the poison on her skin.” She was later referred to as the “napalm girl.” Fourty years later, Phuc now lives in Toronto with a family and has written a book. The boy on the far left, Phuc’s brother, lost an eye in the attack and died of cancer a few years ago. His widow, who stayed in Vietnam, manages another cafe next door to Ho’s on the first floor of Phuc’s family home.

As a teenager, Ut, looked to his older brother as an inspiration and followed in his footsteps. His brother, Huynh Thanh My, was a Vietnamese actor-turned AP photo journalist who was eventually killed by the Viet Cong.

Ut still works as a photographer for the Associated Press. But he tells the Guardian that no photo will “ever compare” to the one he took that day.