SHOCKING KEROSENE ACCIDENTS.

Evening Star, Issue 4108, 27 April 1876, Page 4

SHOCKING KEROSENE ACCIDENTS.

A little boy, aged four years and seven months, named Frank Neil bell, the son of a bootmaker residing at Marrickville, near hydney, met with a frightful death recently. The ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ states that William Bell, a boy of thirteen, who was left at home in charge of his three little brothers while his parents went to church, gave at the inquest the following account of how the accident happened ; There was a kerosene lamp alight on the back room table; they were playing with little carts in front of the house when their parents went out; shortly after they left he and his three little brothers went into the house ; being afraid of the lamp falling off the table in the back room, he took it into the front room, and he put it on the floor; they wanted to play in the front room, and he put the light on the floor so that they could see ; he and his brothers, Fred, six years old, and Frank, were sitting on the floor around the lamp singing hymns, “Safe in the arms of Jesus he had the baby in his arms, nursing it; as Fred was in tue act of getting up from the floor, oiie of his feet kicked the lamp over, and it broke, and the oil ran out and blazed up ; Frank’s clothes then took fire, and he (witness) then ran out and called his uncle and Mrs Harris; he and the baby were the nearest to the lamp at the time of the occurrence; he had been frequently left at home to mind the children, but only once before was the lamp left with them.

The jury found a verdict of “Death from bums received through the accidental upsetting of a kerosene lamp.” As a rider the jury added, “We deprecate the system of leaving lighted kerosene lamps in houses in which there are only children, and trust that this case will operate as a caution to parents and others to avoid in future so dangerous a practice.”

A sad accident is reported by the ‘ Rockhampton Bulletin ’ as having occurred at the Connor River Hotel. A young married woman, the wife of a blacksmith named Smith, who was staying for a short time at the hotel named, went to the kitchen fire to cook two eggs, and as the fire did not bum well she poured some kerosene upon it from the tin. An explosion took place, the poor woman’s clothes caught fire, and she sustained fatal injuries. The hotel proprietor at once rode to St. Lawrence for medical assistance, and the circumstance being explained to the townspeople there, the sum of L2fi was subscribed in a few minutes for the defrayal of the doctor’s expenses. The local medico Dr, Butler —at once started for the Connor, but unhappily the case was beyond human aid, and Mrs Smith died shortly after the accident. It appears that the oil igniting communicated with the tin, and before the unfortunate woman could drop the tin it exploded, and the liqjpd fire was scattered all over her. She ran out of the house in a column of flame, and rushed frantically towards the river. She was observed by some men who were ciose by, who hastened to her assistance, and enveloped her in blankets and ex’tinguished the fire. All her c'othing had been completely burnt, with the exception of a few smouldering shreds which were ont awa,y and her body was dressed with castor oil. The accident happened about 4 p.m. She lingered in great agony, which she bore with resignation, when death terminated her sufferings about 5 a.m. the following day. She was sensible the whole time, and talked nationally and coolly, and was aware that she could not live many hours.