FRIGHTFUL DEATH FROM BURNING.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2119, 19 October 1875, Page 2

FRIGHTFUL DEATH FROM BURNING.

The Sidney Evening 3ST«'ws reports that on the morning of the 21st ultimo, at about 8 o'clock, a girl aged 16, named Ellen. Kennedy, was received at the Syd-. ney Infirmary suffering from severe Burns,' which soon,afterwards provedfatal, ? ,The deceased was employed by Mr Albert Chapman, of the Newtown-road, opposite the toll. It appears, according to the girl's. statement to her em ployer, she had lit the fire withpaper, and as it would not, burn briskly, she took a can containing' about a gallon of kerosene oil, and whilst pouring the oil on the smouldering fire, the can suddenly exploded with a noise like .thunder". /; The oil, spread in; )fll;direci tionsMiterally saturating her clothes, and the fire having communicated with it, the unfortunate girl was enveloped in flames from head to foot. The flames wtre so great that they shot up the chimney, leading the neighbours to believe that the chimney was on fire. The poor girl, finding herself in flames, rushed out of the kitchen, 3 which is detached from the house, and on entering the dining-rpom screamed in a most heart-rending^manner, causing her employer, Mr:,, GJjapman, to jump out of his bed and j^down^ stairs. On his finding her oniirefw^ rushed back to his bed-room, procured some blankets and sheeting, and dashing down stairs rolled the girl' up in theinT Meanwhile the girl had sat down on the. bottom step of the stairs, which are much burnt, as well as a chair which stood close by. So strong a hold, had the fire on the girl's clothes, that scarcely; a vestige of them remained within a few minutes after tile explosion. The flames were so great that the walls *of the staircase and passage were much blackened. The keroseitfe' can was found, with its bottom out; butsMe the door of the kitchen^ and;, 4' strange td say, not: a traqeiof thebil'Wasfound on the kitchen' flbor^clekrly show* ing that most of it went over "the girl's . clothes. Soon after the explosion several neighbours came in, and Dr. Weston, of the Cook's River road, was soon in attendance. When the girl's body was examined, it was found that there wa&ifot a place as large as a hand not charred by the fire. The body was covered in flour-, and rolled in blankets, and taken to the, infirmary;