FATALLY BURNT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 68, 2 January 1936, Page 6

FATALLY BURNT

ALLENTON CHILD'S DEATH. PLAYING WITH FIREWORKS. BROTHER’S ACT COMMENDED. While playing with fireworks on Tuesday afternoon Josephine Boothroyd,aged six, only daughter of Mr and Mrs J. P. Boothroyd, of Belt Road, Ashburton, received burns from which she died in the Ashburton Public Hospital about 8 o’clock yesterday morning. Three other children were playing with her in the yard of a neighbour, Mr R. S. Pearson, 38 Belt Road, when the accident occurred. After placing powder from crackers on a block and covering it with matches and paper, the children set it alight. The powder exploded as Josephine was leaning over the block and her dress caught fire. Her brother, aged 10, tried to tear her clothes off, and Mrs Pearson, coming to his assistance, wrapped the child in towels. The child suffered severe burns on her body, and Mrs Pearson burns on her hands. An inquest was opened yesterday before the District Coroner (Mr E. C. Bathurst), and was adjourned until today after evidence of identification had been given. Evidence at the Inquest. A verdict of death from shock as the result of burns accidentally received was returned by the Coroner at the adjourned inquest held this afternoon. He commended the prompt action of Mrs Pearson in endeavouring to save the child. Clifford Murray Burton, aged 5b who was playing in Mrs Pearson’s yard with Josephine Boothroyd, said that the crackers were broken open and put on a chopping block. He had a box of matches which he opened and put with the powder, while Josephine had somo paper which she tore up and put on the block with the matches. He remembered seeing her take a match and light the paper. The paper 'did not burn up quickly, but he saw a flame from it. Josephine leaned over this and witness said he thought she did not think it was burning. The flame did not flare up suddenly but set fire to the front of her dress. He then called out “Look, your dress is burning.” She looked at it, and then walked round the chopping block twice, finally running to the back door of Mrs Pearson’s house, calling out to her brother, “Save me, Bruce.” Bruce came round from the side of the house and started to pull Josephine’s clothes ofif. Mrs Pearson then came out, and wrapping Josephine in towels put the fire out. Dorothy Isobel Pearson, a married woman, of 38 Belt Road, Allenton, said, that at about 3.30 she heard a scream, from the back yard. Going immediately to find out what was wrong, she was met by the little girl at the kitchen door. Josephine was texiilied, and her clothing was in flames all over. Witness took her to the washhouse, wrapping her in towels and smothering the flames. The child s clothing and also her body were considerably burnt. She kept the child wrapped up until the doctor s a nival. She had hidden her matches away in a drawer that morning to prevent the children getting them. Some other children had been letting off crackers on the previous day and she did no want it to be repeated. If the deceased and the children with her had matches it was without the knowledge of witness. . Evidence about the children playing in the yard was given by Bruce Boothroyd, aged 10, who was on the verandah of the house with another boy, and could not see them. Josephine came round the corner of the house with her dress in flames. Ho caught hold of her dress and tried to pull it off, but it would not come oyer her head and he burnt his fingers. Clifford Burton had told him. ho was going o get some matches and he saw him .ohm into Mrs Pearson’s kitchen cO get them in order to let off crackers. He saw him with them later when he came out again. Dr. G. W. Moore (house suigeou at till! Ashburton Public Hospital) said that the child uas suffering Iron.i extensive burns to the body and fiom shock when she was admitted to the hospital at 3.55 p.m. on Ne " Y , ea ' Eve. Tho bums extended on the iron of the body from the level of the shoulder to tho middle of the tlll | lS and on the back for a similar tance but not so extensively. There were burns in the inner sides oi the arms and a slight burn on tho ch.m It would be a conservative estimate t say that more than halt the body burned. Most of the burns wer6 of tho second degree, although there we somo of the first and third degrees. I he patient died at 7.10 a.m. yesterday . h lus opinion tho cause oi death was shock following the burns received. INJURIES PROVE FATAL. HASTINGS, December 31. In juries sustained by Carl Bedell, a clerk of iPctone, aged 23, when lie dived into shallow water, have proved fatal, death occurring early tins morning. His spine was badly injured through diving into about two feet of water. BUS IN COLLISION. TRAVELLING TO HAKATERE. A fully-loaded bus, carrying passengers to the Hakatere sports yesterday, collided with a car at the intersection of Cass and Moore streets yesterday, but, although "both vehicles were damaged, no one was injured. The bus, travelling cast along Moore Street, was driven by Mr H. Porter, and the car, travelling south along Cass Street, by 'Mr E. Tinker, of Aitken

Street. The car, which was forced on to the footpath by the collision, was not badly damaged, while the front axle of the bus was bent, necessitating another bus being employed on the service to Hakatere for the rest of the day. MOTOR-CARS COLLIDE. MAN KILLED, WOMAN INJURED. CHRISTCHURCH, January 1. Francis Colthur.st Godfrey, insurance agent, Somerfield Street, Christchurch, received fatal injuries when a baby car he was driving collided with another car driven by Mr Francis Gilbert, storekeeper, of Cust, about 10.30 last night on the Cust-Bennetts R.oad, North Canterbury. Mr Godfrey’s car was very badly smashed, and overturned into a hedge. Mr Godfrey was taken to the Christchurch Hospital, where he died at 2.30 this morning. Mr Godfrey’s mother-in-law, Mrs W. F. Raphael, of Gracefield Avenue, who was driving with him, is in Lewisham Hospital with injuries to her head, which are not severe. Mr Gilbert and the passenger in his car were cut hv flying glass. CHILD ELECTROCUTED WHAKATANE, January 1. June Ellis, aged six, a daughter of Mr and Mrs L. C. Ellis, of Edgecumbe, was killed by electricity at 7.15 o’clock last night. Evidence given at the inquest ta-day showed that the child, the daughter of a linesman living near a. sub-station, climbed the sub-station structure to a height of 25 feet, and touched a 50,000-volt switch. S. Jenkins, another linesman, heard the noise of an electric arc, and ran to the yards and discovered the child lying on her back on the ground, with smoke coming from her clothing, apparently dead, and terribly burned.