Brooklyn, NY Stove Explosion, May 1896

LIVES BURNED OUT.

Two Women and a Babe Killed and Three Children Fatally Burned by the Explosion of an Oil Stove.

BROOKLYN, N. Y., May 6.---By the explosion of a gasoline stove in a flat at the corner Bushwick and Johnson avenues, Tuesday morning, three persons were burned to death and three seriously injured. MRS. REBECCA COHEN attempted to light a gasoline stove in her kitchen when the stove exploded. The woman's clothing caught fire and she ran to her two children, KARL, 14 months old, and Solomon, 3 years old, and clasped them in her arms, setting their clothes on fire. The woman then ran across the hallway to the apartment of her sister, MRS. PASTANACK, screaming for help. Mrs. Pastanack endeavored to extinguish the fire in which her sister was enveloped and in doing so her own clothing was ignited.

Mrs. Pastanack, with her clothing on fire, ran to her two children, Solomon, 8 years old, and Rosie, 2 years old, and lifted them in her arms. The two women and the four children, their clothing ablaze, then ran into the hallway. Help arrived and Mrs. Cohen was taken to St. Catherine's hospital, but died before reaching there. Mrs. Pastanack was found dead in a corner of the hallway and the Cohen children were found badly burned in Mrs. Cohen's apartments. They were taken to a hospital, where Karl died. It is expected that Solomon Cohen will recover.

The Pastanack children were removed to the hospital, but they are so badly burned that the physicians have little hope of saving them. The loss by the fire is $100.

Democratic Standard, Coshocton, OH 15 May 1896
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Transcribed by Linda Horton. Thank you, Linda!