SIX DEAD IN A FIRE
FLAMES NEARLY WIPE OUT FAMILY AT PONCA, NEB.
MOTHER AND CHILDREN DIE
FATHER SO BADLY BURNED HE CAN HARDLY LIVE
Kettle of Boiling Tar Ignited and House Is Soon Enveloped–
Elder Son Tries to Act as a Rescuer
PONCA, Neb., April 24. ─ Due to the explosion of a five gallon kettle of tar that was boiling on the kitchen stove, the following named are dead at the ferry landing on the Missouri river one and one-half miles north of here:
MRS. JEREMIAH MINER, aged forty-five years.
PHILLIP MINER, thirteen years.
SAMUEL MINER, aged ten years.
UTLEY MINER, five years
JEREMIAH MINER, jr., three years.
ETTA MINER, five months.
Injured:
Jeremiah Miner: will probably die.
Minnie Miner, aged eight badly burned.
The husband and father, Jeremiah Miner, is so badly burned that little hope is held out for his recovery.
For years Miner has operated a ferry boat across the Missouri river between the Ponca landing and Elk Point, S.D. This being a day when he did not expect much business, he concluded to calk the deck, and filled a five gallon kettle with tar and placed it on the stove to warm, so that it would flow. Just after breakfast, when the father, mother and five children were sitting around the kitchen stove, the tar in the kettle boiled over and ran down onto the stove. Instantly it communicated with the fire and a moment later the interior of the room was a roaring furnace, the flames from the burning tar reaching to every portion.
Eldest Son Acts as Rescuer
The oldest son, Charles, was working on the boat, a few rods from the house, and looking up saw the flames breaking through the windows. Starting in that direction he met his father, who was a flaming torch. He hurried him to the river, pushed him into the water and rolled him about until the flames were extinguished, drew him onto the bank and then went to the house, which by this time was almost ready to collapse. Outside he found a sister, eight years old, that the father had grabbed up and thrown through the window before he was forced to flee in order to escape death. She was badly burned, but will probably live.
Inside the building Charles Miner could see the bodies of his mother, his four brothers and his baby sister, with the flames burning so fiercely that to have gone to them would have meant certain death. He secured a long pole and reaching the end through a window attempted to hook the end into the clothing of the dead and draw them toward him. About this time the house collapsed and the roof fell in.
Then the young man turned his attention to saving his father and sister. Mounting a horse and riding to town he summoned assistance, doctors and citizens responding. It is doubtful if the father will live through the night. His burns cover nearly the whole of his body and many of them are deep. This forenoon water was carried and thrown on the burning embers of the house and as soon as the fire was extinguished, a search for the bodies commenced. Only the trunk of the mother’s body remained, the limbs and head having been burned away. The bodies of the children were destroyed.
Source: The Nebraska State Journal, 25 April 1910, “Six Dead In A Fire,” pg. 1.
Lincoln, Monday Morning, April 25, 1910. Viewed at Ancestry.com, April 30, 2014
FLAMES NEARLY WIPE OUT FAMILY AT PONCA, NEB.
MOTHER AND CHILDREN DIE
FATHER SO BADLY BURNED HE CAN HARDLY LIVE
Kettle of Boiling Tar Ignited and House Is Soon Enveloped–
Elder Son Tries to Act as a Rescuer
PONCA, Neb., April 24. ─ Due to the explosion of a five gallon kettle of tar that was boiling on the kitchen stove, the following named are dead at the ferry landing on the Missouri river one and one-half miles north of here:
MRS. JEREMIAH MINER, aged forty-five years.
PHILLIP MINER, thirteen years.
SAMUEL MINER, aged ten years.
UTLEY MINER, five years
JEREMIAH MINER, jr., three years.
ETTA MINER, five months.
Injured:
Jeremiah Miner: will probably die.
Minnie Miner, aged eight badly burned.
The husband and father, Jeremiah Miner, is so badly burned that little hope is held out for his recovery.
For years Miner has operated a ferry boat across the Missouri river between the Ponca landing and Elk Point, S.D. This being a day when he did not expect much business, he concluded to calk the deck, and filled a five gallon kettle with tar and placed it on the stove to warm, so that it would flow. Just after breakfast, when the father, mother and five children were sitting around the kitchen stove, the tar in the kettle boiled over and ran down onto the stove. Instantly it communicated with the fire and a moment later the interior of the room was a roaring furnace, the flames from the burning tar reaching to every portion.
Eldest Son Acts as Rescuer
The oldest son, Charles, was working on the boat, a few rods from the house, and looking up saw the flames breaking through the windows. Starting in that direction he met his father, who was a flaming torch. He hurried him to the river, pushed him into the water and rolled him about until the flames were extinguished, drew him onto the bank and then went to the house, which by this time was almost ready to collapse. Outside he found a sister, eight years old, that the father had grabbed up and thrown through the window before he was forced to flee in order to escape death. She was badly burned, but will probably live.
Inside the building Charles Miner could see the bodies of his mother, his four brothers and his baby sister, with the flames burning so fiercely that to have gone to them would have meant certain death. He secured a long pole and reaching the end through a window attempted to hook the end into the clothing of the dead and draw them toward him. About this time the house collapsed and the roof fell in.
Then the young man turned his attention to saving his father and sister. Mounting a horse and riding to town he summoned assistance, doctors and citizens responding. It is doubtful if the father will live through the night. His burns cover nearly the whole of his body and many of them are deep. This forenoon water was carried and thrown on the burning embers of the house and as soon as the fire was extinguished, a search for the bodies commenced. Only the trunk of the mother’s body remained, the limbs and head having been burned away. The bodies of the children were destroyed.
Source: The Nebraska State Journal, 25 April 1910, “Six Dead In A Fire,” pg. 1.
Lincoln, Monday Morning, April 25, 1910. Viewed at Ancestry.com, April 30, 2014
SIX DEAD IN A FIRE
FLAMES NEARLY WIPE OUT FAMILY AT PONCA, NEB.
MOTHER AND CHILDREN DIE
FATHER SO BADLY BURNED HE CAN HARDLY LIVE
Kettle of Boiling Tar Ignited and House Is Soon Enveloped–
Elder Son Tries to Act as a Rescuer
PONCA, Neb., April 24. ─ Due to the explosion of a five gallon kettle of tar that was boiling on the kitchen stove, the following named are dead at the ferry landing on the Missouri river one and one-half miles north of here:
MRS. JEREMIAH MINER, aged forty-five years.
PHILLIP MINER, thirteen years.
SAMUEL MINER, aged ten years.
UTLEY MINER, five years
JEREMIAH MINER, jr., three years.
ETTA MINER, five months.
Injured:
Jeremiah Miner: will probably die.
Minnie Miner, aged eight badly burned.
The husband and father, Jeremiah Miner, is so badly burned that little hope is held out for his recovery.
For years Miner has operated a ferry boat across the Missouri river between the Ponca landing and Elk Point, S.D. This being a day when he did not expect much business, he concluded to calk the deck, and filled a five gallon kettle with tar and placed it on the stove to warm, so that it would flow. Just after breakfast, when the father, mother and five children were sitting around the kitchen stove, the tar in the kettle boiled over and ran down onto the stove. Instantly it communicated with the fire and a moment later the interior of the room was a roaring furnace, the flames from the burning tar reaching to every portion.
Eldest Son Acts as Rescuer
The oldest son, Charles, was working on the boat, a few rods from the house, and looking up saw the flames breaking through the windows. Starting in that direction he met his father, who was a flaming torch. He hurried him to the river, pushed him into the water and rolled him about until the flames were extinguished, drew him onto the bank and then went to the house, which by this time was almost ready to collapse. Outside he found a sister, eight years old, that the father had grabbed up and thrown through the window before he was forced to flee in order to escape death. She was badly burned, but will probably live.
Inside the building Charles Miner could see the bodies of his mother, his four brothers and his baby sister, with the flames burning so fiercely that to have gone to them would have meant certain death. He secured a long pole and reaching the end through a window attempted to hook the end into the clothing of the dead and draw them toward him. About this time the house collapsed and the roof fell in.
Then the young man turned his attention to saving his father and sister. Mounting a horse and riding to town he summoned assistance, doctors and citizens responding. It is doubtful if the father will live through the night. His burns cover nearly the whole of his body and many of them are deep. This forenoon water was carried and thrown on the burning embers of the house and as soon as the fire was extinguished, a search for the bodies commenced. Only the trunk of the mother’s body remained, the limbs and head having been burned away. The bodies of the children were destroyed.
Source: The Nebraska State Journal, 25 April 1910, “Six Dead In A Fire,” pg. 1.
Lincoln, Monday Morning, April 25, 1910. Viewed at Ancestry.com, April 30, 2014
FLAMES NEARLY WIPE OUT FAMILY AT PONCA, NEB.
MOTHER AND CHILDREN DIE
FATHER SO BADLY BURNED HE CAN HARDLY LIVE
Kettle of Boiling Tar Ignited and House Is Soon Enveloped–
Elder Son Tries to Act as a Rescuer
PONCA, Neb., April 24. ─ Due to the explosion of a five gallon kettle of tar that was boiling on the kitchen stove, the following named are dead at the ferry landing on the Missouri river one and one-half miles north of here:
MRS. JEREMIAH MINER, aged forty-five years.
PHILLIP MINER, thirteen years.
SAMUEL MINER, aged ten years.
UTLEY MINER, five years
JEREMIAH MINER, jr., three years.
ETTA MINER, five months.
Injured:
Jeremiah Miner: will probably die.
Minnie Miner, aged eight badly burned.
The husband and father, Jeremiah Miner, is so badly burned that little hope is held out for his recovery.
For years Miner has operated a ferry boat across the Missouri river between the Ponca landing and Elk Point, S.D. This being a day when he did not expect much business, he concluded to calk the deck, and filled a five gallon kettle with tar and placed it on the stove to warm, so that it would flow. Just after breakfast, when the father, mother and five children were sitting around the kitchen stove, the tar in the kettle boiled over and ran down onto the stove. Instantly it communicated with the fire and a moment later the interior of the room was a roaring furnace, the flames from the burning tar reaching to every portion.
Eldest Son Acts as Rescuer
The oldest son, Charles, was working on the boat, a few rods from the house, and looking up saw the flames breaking through the windows. Starting in that direction he met his father, who was a flaming torch. He hurried him to the river, pushed him into the water and rolled him about until the flames were extinguished, drew him onto the bank and then went to the house, which by this time was almost ready to collapse. Outside he found a sister, eight years old, that the father had grabbed up and thrown through the window before he was forced to flee in order to escape death. She was badly burned, but will probably live.
Inside the building Charles Miner could see the bodies of his mother, his four brothers and his baby sister, with the flames burning so fiercely that to have gone to them would have meant certain death. He secured a long pole and reaching the end through a window attempted to hook the end into the clothing of the dead and draw them toward him. About this time the house collapsed and the roof fell in.
Then the young man turned his attention to saving his father and sister. Mounting a horse and riding to town he summoned assistance, doctors and citizens responding. It is doubtful if the father will live through the night. His burns cover nearly the whole of his body and many of them are deep. This forenoon water was carried and thrown on the burning embers of the house and as soon as the fire was extinguished, a search for the bodies commenced. Only the trunk of the mother’s body remained, the limbs and head having been burned away. The bodies of the children were destroyed.
Source: The Nebraska State Journal, 25 April 1910, “Six Dead In A Fire,” pg. 1.
Lincoln, Monday Morning, April 25, 1910. Viewed at Ancestry.com, April 30, 2014
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