Dickens Woman Died from Gasoline Explosion
Mrs. Ada Yocum, 41 years old, wife of Burt Yocum and mother of five children, was fatally burned by a gasoline explosion that caused the destruction of their home on the Randall Tuttle farm a mile east of Dickens last Sunday noon. She died about eight hours later in Spencer hospital.
Her son Joe, 17 years old, was severely burned about the face and hands when he tried to save her.
The house was burned to the ground with all its contents. none of the farm buildings except the house was damaged, as the house was east of the rest and a wind was blowing from the west during the fire.
The explosion occurred in the kitchen. The Yocum car would not run, and Will Price of Spencer, who was helping Mr. Yocum on the farm, said he thought the trouble might be ice in the gasoline feed line.
They drew three or four gallons of gasoline out of the auto's tank into a milk pail and carried that into the house and set it on the kitchen floor a few feet from the stove.
Mrs. Yocum and Joe were in the kitchen about eleven o'clock or a little later when the gasoline exploded. The blazing fluid was thrown over her and set her clothes on fire. The kitchen was full of flame. Even in that moment she thought first of the children, and cried out to Mrs. Will Price in the next room, to save them.
Mrs. Price was bathing the youngest Yocum child, May, two years old. She quickly kicked the glass out of a window and storm window of the sitting room she was in, and put the naked baby through it onto the snow outside. She yelled for the men. Then she got the other Yocum children, May, 4 years old, and Pearl, 12, and two of her own, out of the house, and took a quilt out and wrapped Baby May in it.
Price and Yocum who were working at the barn got Mrs. Yocum and Joe out of the house. Most of her clothing was burned off. They wrapped her in a quilt and laid her on a mattress brought from the house, and got the first man who came along the road with a car to take her and the children to Will Edwards home about half a mile north.
Mrs. Yocum was taken from the Edwards place to Dr. E.E. Bruce in Dickens. He saw that she was burned virtually from head to foot and that her condition was very dangerous. He had her brought as quickly as possible to Spencer hospital and went there himself at the same time. On arrival she was taken at once to the operating room at the hospital, about 1:15 or 1:30 she and her burns were dressed, but it was impossible to saver her life. She died at 7:15 that evening.
Published in The Spirit Lake Beacon, Spirit Lake, Dickinson County, Iowa, December 29, 1927.
Mrs. Ada Yocum, 41 years old, wife of Burt Yocum and mother of five children, was fatally burned by a gasoline explosion that caused the destruction of their home on the Randall Tuttle farm a mile east of Dickens last Sunday noon. She died about eight hours later in Spencer hospital.
Her son Joe, 17 years old, was severely burned about the face and hands when he tried to save her.
The house was burned to the ground with all its contents. none of the farm buildings except the house was damaged, as the house was east of the rest and a wind was blowing from the west during the fire.
The explosion occurred in the kitchen. The Yocum car would not run, and Will Price of Spencer, who was helping Mr. Yocum on the farm, said he thought the trouble might be ice in the gasoline feed line.
They drew three or four gallons of gasoline out of the auto's tank into a milk pail and carried that into the house and set it on the kitchen floor a few feet from the stove.
Mrs. Yocum and Joe were in the kitchen about eleven o'clock or a little later when the gasoline exploded. The blazing fluid was thrown over her and set her clothes on fire. The kitchen was full of flame. Even in that moment she thought first of the children, and cried out to Mrs. Will Price in the next room, to save them.
Mrs. Price was bathing the youngest Yocum child, May, two years old. She quickly kicked the glass out of a window and storm window of the sitting room she was in, and put the naked baby through it onto the snow outside. She yelled for the men. Then she got the other Yocum children, May, 4 years old, and Pearl, 12, and two of her own, out of the house, and took a quilt out and wrapped Baby May in it.
Price and Yocum who were working at the barn got Mrs. Yocum and Joe out of the house. Most of her clothing was burned off. They wrapped her in a quilt and laid her on a mattress brought from the house, and got the first man who came along the road with a car to take her and the children to Will Edwards home about half a mile north.
Mrs. Yocum was taken from the Edwards place to Dr. E.E. Bruce in Dickens. He saw that she was burned virtually from head to foot and that her condition was very dangerous. He had her brought as quickly as possible to Spencer hospital and went there himself at the same time. On arrival she was taken at once to the operating room at the hospital, about 1:15 or 1:30 she and her burns were dressed, but it was impossible to saver her life. She died at 7:15 that evening.
Published in The Spirit Lake Beacon, Spirit Lake, Dickinson County, Iowa, December 29, 1927.
Dickens Woman Died from Gasoline Explosion
Mrs. Ada Yocum, 41 years old, wife of Burt Yocum and mother of five children, was fatally burned by a gasoline explosion that caused the destruction of their home on the Randall Tuttle farm a mile east of Dickens last Sunday noon. She died about eight hours later in Spencer hospital.
Her son Joe, 17 years old, was severely burned about the face and hands when he tried to save her.
The house was burned to the ground with all its contents. none of the farm buildings except the house was damaged, as the house was east of the rest and a wind was blowing from the west during the fire.
The explosion occurred in the kitchen. The Yocum car would not run, and Will Price of Spencer, who was helping Mr. Yocum on the farm, said he thought the trouble might be ice in the gasoline feed line.
They drew three or four gallons of gasoline out of the auto's tank into a milk pail and carried that into the house and set it on the kitchen floor a few feet from the stove.
Mrs. Yocum and Joe were in the kitchen about eleven o'clock or a little later when the gasoline exploded. The blazing fluid was thrown over her and set her clothes on fire. The kitchen was full of flame. Even in that moment she thought first of the children, and cried out to Mrs. Will Price in the next room, to save them.
Mrs. Price was bathing the youngest Yocum child, May, two years old. She quickly kicked the glass out of a window and storm window of the sitting room she was in, and put the naked baby through it onto the snow outside. She yelled for the men. Then she got the other Yocum children, May, 4 years old, and Pearl, 12, and two of her own, out of the house, and took a quilt out and wrapped Baby May in it.
Price and Yocum who were working at the barn got Mrs. Yocum and Joe out of the house. Most of her clothing was burned off. They wrapped her in a quilt and laid her on a mattress brought from the house, and got the first man who came along the road with a car to take her and the children to Will Edwards home about half a mile north.
Mrs. Yocum was taken from the Edwards place to Dr. E.E. Bruce in Dickens. He saw that she was burned virtually from head to foot and that her condition was very dangerous. He had her brought as quickly as possible to Spencer hospital and went there himself at the same time. On arrival she was taken at once to the operating room at the hospital, about 1:15 or 1:30 she and her burns were dressed, but it was impossible to saver her life. She died at 7:15 that evening.
Published in The Spirit Lake Beacon, Spirit Lake, Dickinson County, Iowa, December 29, 1927.
Mrs. Ada Yocum, 41 years old, wife of Burt Yocum and mother of five children, was fatally burned by a gasoline explosion that caused the destruction of their home on the Randall Tuttle farm a mile east of Dickens last Sunday noon. She died about eight hours later in Spencer hospital.
Her son Joe, 17 years old, was severely burned about the face and hands when he tried to save her.
The house was burned to the ground with all its contents. none of the farm buildings except the house was damaged, as the house was east of the rest and a wind was blowing from the west during the fire.
The explosion occurred in the kitchen. The Yocum car would not run, and Will Price of Spencer, who was helping Mr. Yocum on the farm, said he thought the trouble might be ice in the gasoline feed line.
They drew three or four gallons of gasoline out of the auto's tank into a milk pail and carried that into the house and set it on the kitchen floor a few feet from the stove.
Mrs. Yocum and Joe were in the kitchen about eleven o'clock or a little later when the gasoline exploded. The blazing fluid was thrown over her and set her clothes on fire. The kitchen was full of flame. Even in that moment she thought first of the children, and cried out to Mrs. Will Price in the next room, to save them.
Mrs. Price was bathing the youngest Yocum child, May, two years old. She quickly kicked the glass out of a window and storm window of the sitting room she was in, and put the naked baby through it onto the snow outside. She yelled for the men. Then she got the other Yocum children, May, 4 years old, and Pearl, 12, and two of her own, out of the house, and took a quilt out and wrapped Baby May in it.
Price and Yocum who were working at the barn got Mrs. Yocum and Joe out of the house. Most of her clothing was burned off. They wrapped her in a quilt and laid her on a mattress brought from the house, and got the first man who came along the road with a car to take her and the children to Will Edwards home about half a mile north.
Mrs. Yocum was taken from the Edwards place to Dr. E.E. Bruce in Dickens. He saw that she was burned virtually from head to foot and that her condition was very dangerous. He had her brought as quickly as possible to Spencer hospital and went there himself at the same time. On arrival she was taken at once to the operating room at the hospital, about 1:15 or 1:30 she and her burns were dressed, but it was impossible to saver her life. She died at 7:15 that evening.
Published in The Spirit Lake Beacon, Spirit Lake, Dickinson County, Iowa, December 29, 1927.
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