The San Francisco call., 1896-03-11
A AWOMAN "A TALLY BURNED
Terrible Sufferings of the Young
Wife of G.. Frank Town.
send.
Her Life Might Have Been Saved but
for the Gross Stupidity of
Three Men.

Mrs. Ella Townsend, wife of G. Frank
Townsend of the Texas tamale factory,
1161A Mission street, was fatally burned
gross stupidity of three men her life
might have been saved.
She and her husband conducted the
tamale factory themselves. She was an
expert in preparing and cooking the
tamales, and her husband attended to the
customers. They occupied the entire
ground floor.
About 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon the
husband left the place to deliver some
goods. Mrs. Townsend was alone, and
shortly after her husband had gone she
started a big fire in the kitchen stove.
Then she went into the front room and
filled the lamps. In doing so she un-
knowingly spilled a quantity of the oil
over the front of her dress.
She returned to the kitchen and stood
in front of the open stove. The flame s
leaped out and set fire to the oil on her
dress and in an instant she was enveloped
in flames. Writing in pain the unfor-
tunate woman shrieked for help. Three
men who were passing heard her screams
and ran into the place. They saw her in
blaze of fame and instead of endeavor-
ing TO extingush the blaze they ran out
of the place to the Receiving Hospital for
the am bulance.
A Mrs Jones lives on the floor above
and she also heard the screams. She paid
no attention to them at first, but as
they continued she went on TO the
stoop Of the first floor and saw Mrs.
Townsend on the floor of the kitchen
wriihing and shrieking in her agony.
Instead OF gong to her assistance Mrs.
Jones simply Joined her screams to those
of the tortured woman. When she was
asked later why she did not help to ex-
tinguish the flames she said she was
afraid of the fire.
Meantime the ambulance had been hur-
riedly got ready and DR.. Rhine accom-
panied il. He found the woman slowly
roasting TO death, with no one near her.
She was tenderly lifted into the ambu-
lance and driven to the hospital, where
DR.. Welt expressed the opinion that she
could not live till morning. She was liter
ally roasted from her feet to her head.
The saddest part of all is that in few
days she would have given birth 10 her
first child She was 23years Of age, and she
and her husband were married in Gree n
Vile, Mich, two years ago, her maiden
name being Ella McGovern.
When the husband returned from deliy-
ering the goods he was horror-stricken
when told that his wife had been taken to
the hospital almost burned to death. He
hurried to his father and together they
went to the hospital.
Mrs. Townsend was still conscious, and
husband and wife had pathetic inter-
view. The dying woman told him that If
| help had come her own life and the life of
her unborn babe might have been saved.
The husband was heart-broken at witness
ing the terrible sufferings of his wife,
which she bore with fortitude and resig-
nation.
Mrs. Townsend became delirious about 9
o'clock, and as it was evident that she
might die at any moment, it was decided,
with her husbands consent to perform an
operation in the hope of saving the child's
life. The operation was performed by
Drs. We'll, Bunnell and Rhine. The child
was boy, and there was just flicker of
life when it expired. The doctors said
that il the husband had given his consent
sooner the child's life would have been
saved.
Mrs. Townsend died about half an hour
later, and h"r body and that of her child
were taken to the Morgue.