The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-09-06
WRAPPED In FLAME.
A Woman Terribly Burned by
Upsetting a Lamp.
THREE RgscUERs SUFFER ALSO.
Painful Effects of . small Biase-Ffre
Department. Gets Badly Mixed by
CareiessIy Given Alarms.

A slight Ere ut 605 Seventh street about
10 O'Clock last night was the cause OF Miss
Alice Belden being terribly burned. Her
sister, Mrs. L. Hudgin, Mr.. j. 7.
Smith and Mr.. Fl. I. Huntley were
also badly burned about the hands
in their efforts to put out the flames
which were eating the flesh off Miss Bel
den and threatened TO destroy the house
Miss Belden had just undressed to go to
bed in the front room of the house, which
is occupied by her brother-in-law and
sister. Mt and Mrs. l.. Hudgin. and was
standing in her night dress with her hair
loosened when she accidentally knocked
the lamp off the bureau. The oil immediate
ly Jared up. setting fire to her night dress.
the bedding, the carpet and the bureau at
the same time. Miss Belden. wild with
pain and terror. ran screaming down.
stairs. the flames enveloping her body
and burning her hair off. She was
met at the foot of the stairs by
Mr.. Smith, who was calling at the house
and who had run out of the parIor at the
sound of her screams. He held her with
one hand to prevent her from running out
to the street and with the other hand tore
down one of the portieres shutting off
the hall to the rear of the house. He
wrapped it around her and smothered the
flames, and in doing so burned his hands
until the flesh dropped off them in large
pieces. Mrs. Hudgin had also run up and
aided in extinguish,ng the flames which
envelopei her sister. and in doing so had
her hands painfully burned.
Meanwhile III. B. Huntley, the lawyer,
who occupies the adjoining room to Miss
Belden's in the adjoining house. had been
attracted TO the scene by the screams and
the flames. He was lying on his bed half
undressed, when he heard the cries
from the next house. He jumped mp,
threw on his clothes, dashed through his
own open window to the balcony which
runs along the front of both houses,
smashed the window of Miss Belden's
room and leaped in to find it all in flames
He seized the bedding at the foot
and pitched it out of the win
dow to the middle of the street,
blazing as il was. Then he sent the pill
lows which lay on the floor after it, and
picked mp the lamp, wrapped in flames
from the split oil. and threw it out also.
He next bolted back into his own room,
returned with pitcher of water and
threw it on the carpet.
By this time the flames which had threat
ened TO end Miss Beiden's life had been
put out, and Mrs. Hudgin ran upstairs
with four buckets of water, one
after another, emptied them on the burn
ing carpet and bureau and made
an end of the fire before it had done more
than $50 damage in mere moneys worth.
A telephone alarm had been sent to head
quarters by somebody who had seen the
flames from the street, but, though the fire.
men responded promptly, their work was
already done when they arrived. They
were giving all the aid in their power in
temporarily dressing the burns of the four
victims when they were summoned to
Mary street by another alarm.
Before the fire had been extinguished
DIR. III. E. Merkel had been summoned by
telephone and fastened to the house. He
found Miss Belden in intense agony. She
had been burned from the waist down, and
the flesh was peeling off her in pieces
half as large as hand. Her hair was
almost burned off and only the extreme
upper part of her night dress re-
NAMED unconsumed. She bore her
sufferings bravery and hardly gave
utterance to cry while remedies
were being applied. Mr.. Huntley
made light of his injuries, though he was
badly burned on both hands and Gus him.
self in breaking the glass. and
declared his intention to be at
his Office this morning. Mr.. Smith
was most seriously burned next to
Miss Belden. for he had plunged his
hands right into the flames in preventing
her from rushing into the open air. Mrs.
Hudgin's hands are also painfully burned,
but she tried to busy herself in looking
after her sister.