The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1894-06-29
More Gasoline Stove Explosions.

While we dislike to condem anv ar.
ticle OF common use because of its
commercial value to the manufacturer
and seller yet we believe it TO be the
legitimate province of the newspaper
10 give the news and protect society
wherever the article in question may
endanger life and property. Accord.
ing to newspaper reports coming un-
der our observation gasoline stove ex-
plosions are now as frequent as were
coal oil lamp explosions previous to
the discovery of their proper ventila-
ton by the tube now leading up to the
Same. The following extracts are
only few explosions of number
we have culled at random:
The explosion of a gasoline stove
at Strawberry Mansion, in Philadel
phia, recently resulted in the severe
burning Of Harry Knox and w. 7.
Baird. Both men were taken to the
German Hospital, and Baird will prob.
ably die.
FLAMES also roared through every
room of the wretched tenement house
All North Second street, imperiling
the lives of a half dozen families of the
very poorest class. Rebecca King, a
2-year-old child, was burned to death,
and Augusta King, an infant, was bad.
ly injured by the flames. Mrs. Fannie
King, an industrious seamtress, the
mother of two children, became a raw
ing maniac when she learned the awful
disaster which had hefallen her. She
is now an inmate of the Philadelphia
Hospital. Mrs. Saunders, who lives
in the garrett of the house, saved her
own child, and, even at infinite peril
to herself, rushed into the seething
room occupied by Mrs. King and
saved one, of the children, divesting
herself of her skirt to wrap round the
child and leaping from the second
floor window to the ground in the
rear of the house. Mrs. King had fol
lowed her with the baby, and as she
espied Lena she shrieked: "Where
is Becky" For an answer a terrific
burst of fame came from the room
she had just left. Then the poor
woman's mental balance gave way and
she was raving."
"The fire originated from the ex-
ploslon of gasoline stove, which was
being carried into the street by Israel
Grospan, one of the tenants of the
house. The lamp was burning badly :,
and appreciating the danger the man
intended to carry it into the street to
remedy its faults. When near the bot
tom of the stairway, the stove explod-
ed like a bomb, and almost stimuli
taneously the stairway caught fire
Grospan maddened with pain from the
burning oil which had splashed him,
nevertheless did all he could to get the
stove out of the house, but was COM
PEELED to give up"
"Another explosion OF similar char
acter occurred at o33 South Second
street in the apartments of Annie Vo-
hinskey, and the woman and her
three months old child were badly
burned and taken to the Pennsylvania
Hospital. Firemen were compelled
to burst in the door of the room, and
Fireman Barrett, who first entered,
found the terrified woman with her
clothes on fire, and the flames had
spread to the little ones apparel.
The baby was burned and nearly suffo
Gated by the smoke, and the woman's
flesh is frightfully burned. The wo.
man died in terrible agony some time
after her admission to the hospital
"Still another gasoline explosion
occurred in the pork packing establish
ment of Jacob Bohnger & Co., OH
North Third street, at an early hour
in the morning. Fifteen hundred dol
lars will cover the loss occasioned by
all the above fires, but in the case OF
the tenement house the poor people
have lost their all"