A clipping found in the Bible of Ethel F. (James) Gibson (newspaper unknown; pencil-written date: Mar. 3, 1946 / 40 yrs. ago)
Third Gas Fire Victim.
Wednesday afternoon Miss Jessie James, 19, employed in the family of Ed Young of Farmersburg was fatally burned while trying to start a fire with gasoline. The young lady was brought to Terre Haute and taken to St. Anthony's Hospital where she died Thursday morning. Miss James picked up a can, which she thought contained coal oil and which really contained gasoline and used the fluid to kindle a fire in a stove. An explosion followed and Miss James was badly burned about the face & body. She was first treated at the office of Dr. J.T. Oliphant of Farmersburg, who brought her to the hospital. Miss James' accident with gasoline is the third fatality caused in this manner for Lydia and Beatrice Osborn of Burnett were fatally burned Wednesday morning.
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The family story is as follows:
Jessie's sister, Ethel, was 10 years old & in school at the time of the accident. She heard the fire wagon, knew something was wrong, & bolted from class with the teacher yelling at her to come back & sit down. She chased the fire wagon all the way to the house where Jessie worked. According to Ethel, Jessie had baked a lemon pie that morning & had placed it on the window sill to cool. Thus, the stove that caused the accident cannot have been the cooking stove, but the heating stove, which had recently been cleaned on the inside. The coal oil (kerosene) can was always kept on the opposite side of the room from the stove. She made her preparations, fetched the can, poured the liquid in, & returned the can to its proper place. When she struck the match & put it in the stove, there was an explosion. The fire blew out on her & she inhaled it. The force of the blast was such that it blew the bottom out of the can on the opposite side of the room.
Jessie's story was that it was kerosene that she put in the stove. No gasoline was present. The cause of the blast may have been fumes from whatever had been used to clean it.
As she lay dying at the hospital in Terre Haute, her last wish was for a piece of the lemon pie she'd baked.
Third Gas Fire Victim.
Wednesday afternoon Miss Jessie James, 19, employed in the family of Ed Young of Farmersburg was fatally burned while trying to start a fire with gasoline. The young lady was brought to Terre Haute and taken to St. Anthony's Hospital where she died Thursday morning. Miss James picked up a can, which she thought contained coal oil and which really contained gasoline and used the fluid to kindle a fire in a stove. An explosion followed and Miss James was badly burned about the face & body. She was first treated at the office of Dr. J.T. Oliphant of Farmersburg, who brought her to the hospital. Miss James' accident with gasoline is the third fatality caused in this manner for Lydia and Beatrice Osborn of Burnett were fatally burned Wednesday morning.
======
The family story is as follows:
Jessie's sister, Ethel, was 10 years old & in school at the time of the accident. She heard the fire wagon, knew something was wrong, & bolted from class with the teacher yelling at her to come back & sit down. She chased the fire wagon all the way to the house where Jessie worked. According to Ethel, Jessie had baked a lemon pie that morning & had placed it on the window sill to cool. Thus, the stove that caused the accident cannot have been the cooking stove, but the heating stove, which had recently been cleaned on the inside. The coal oil (kerosene) can was always kept on the opposite side of the room from the stove. She made her preparations, fetched the can, poured the liquid in, & returned the can to its proper place. When she struck the match & put it in the stove, there was an explosion. The fire blew out on her & she inhaled it. The force of the blast was such that it blew the bottom out of the can on the opposite side of the room.
Jessie's story was that it was kerosene that she put in the stove. No gasoline was present. The cause of the blast may have been fumes from whatever had been used to clean it.
As she lay dying at the hospital in Terre Haute, her last wish was for a piece of the lemon pie she'd baked.
A clipping found in the Bible of Ethel F. (James) Gibson (newspaper unknown; pencil-written date: Mar. 3, 1946 / 40 yrs. ago)
Third Gas Fire Victim.
Wednesday afternoon Miss Jessie James, 19, employed in the family of Ed Young of Farmersburg was fatally burned while trying to start a fire with gasoline. The young lady was brought to Terre Haute and taken to St. Anthony's Hospital where she died Thursday morning. Miss James picked up a can, which she thought contained coal oil and which really contained gasoline and used the fluid to kindle a fire in a stove. An explosion followed and Miss James was badly burned about the face & body. She was first treated at the office of Dr. J.T. Oliphant of Farmersburg, who brought her to the hospital. Miss James' accident with gasoline is the third fatality caused in this manner for Lydia and Beatrice Osborn of Burnett were fatally burned Wednesday morning.
======
The family story is as follows:
Jessie's sister, Ethel, was 10 years old & in school at the time of the accident. She heard the fire wagon, knew something was wrong, & bolted from class with the teacher yelling at her to come back & sit down. She chased the fire wagon all the way to the house where Jessie worked. According to Ethel, Jessie had baked a lemon pie that morning & had placed it on the window sill to cool. Thus, the stove that caused the accident cannot have been the cooking stove, but the heating stove, which had recently been cleaned on the inside. The coal oil (kerosene) can was always kept on the opposite side of the room from the stove. She made her preparations, fetched the can, poured the liquid in, & returned the can to its proper place. When she struck the match & put it in the stove, there was an explosion. The fire blew out on her & she inhaled it. The force of the blast was such that it blew the bottom out of the can on the opposite side of the room.
Jessie's story was that it was kerosene that she put in the stove. No gasoline was present. The cause of the blast may have been fumes from whatever had been used to clean it.
As she lay dying at the hospital in Terre Haute, her last wish was for a piece of the lemon pie she'd baked.
Third Gas Fire Victim.
Wednesday afternoon Miss Jessie James, 19, employed in the family of Ed Young of Farmersburg was fatally burned while trying to start a fire with gasoline. The young lady was brought to Terre Haute and taken to St. Anthony's Hospital where she died Thursday morning. Miss James picked up a can, which she thought contained coal oil and which really contained gasoline and used the fluid to kindle a fire in a stove. An explosion followed and Miss James was badly burned about the face & body. She was first treated at the office of Dr. J.T. Oliphant of Farmersburg, who brought her to the hospital. Miss James' accident with gasoline is the third fatality caused in this manner for Lydia and Beatrice Osborn of Burnett were fatally burned Wednesday morning.
======
The family story is as follows:
Jessie's sister, Ethel, was 10 years old & in school at the time of the accident. She heard the fire wagon, knew something was wrong, & bolted from class with the teacher yelling at her to come back & sit down. She chased the fire wagon all the way to the house where Jessie worked. According to Ethel, Jessie had baked a lemon pie that morning & had placed it on the window sill to cool. Thus, the stove that caused the accident cannot have been the cooking stove, but the heating stove, which had recently been cleaned on the inside. The coal oil (kerosene) can was always kept on the opposite side of the room from the stove. She made her preparations, fetched the can, poured the liquid in, & returned the can to its proper place. When she struck the match & put it in the stove, there was an explosion. The fire blew out on her & she inhaled it. The force of the blast was such that it blew the bottom out of the can on the opposite side of the room.
Jessie's story was that it was kerosene that she put in the stove. No gasoline was present. The cause of the blast may have been fumes from whatever had been used to clean it.
As she lay dying at the hospital in Terre Haute, her last wish was for a piece of the lemon pie she'd baked.
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