Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1920 — LITTLE CHILD FATALLY BURNED [ARTICLE]

LITTLE CHILD FATALLY BURNED

Yesterday Forenoon While Starting Fire With Coal Oil. Marta Johnson, 11-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ord Johnson of Wolcott, was fatally burned about 10 o’clock yesterday forenoon while starting a fire with coal oil in the kitchen range at the Homer Hendrickson home on south Van Rensselaer street. The girl is a cousin of Mrs. Hendrickson and had accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Hendrickson home from Wolcott last Sunday. Mrs. Hendrickson was lying in bed suffering from a sprained ankle, sustained in Rensselaer Monday, at the time the accident occurred. It is probable that there was some fire in the stove and when the oil exploded the blaze melted the nozzle from the can, the burning oil enveloping the child who ran from the house a mass of flames. She ran around the house and it was a few moments before anyone could catch her and extinguish the fire. Her clothing was all burned off her body, and the entire front of the body and limbs burned so badly that there was practically no hope of her surviving. She was taken to the hospital at once and everything possible Is being done to alleviate her suffering The fire company was called out but extinguished the fire in the kitchen with chemicals, only the paper and woodwork being scorched.