The Mother Who Ran Through Burning Oil
A lamp explosion trapped two boys in a Whatcom kitchen; their mother rushed through flames to save them and was badly burned.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Whatcom, Oct. 17.—[Special.]—Sunday evening Mrs. C. Bornstein was severely burned by a lamp explosion. She was working in the kitchen and her two little boys were playing in another room when they knocked a lamp off the table. The lamp exploded and the burning oil hemmed the boys in a corner. Mrs. Bornstein rushed through the burning oil and carried her children out of danger. Her clothing caught fire and she rushed screaming from the house. N. C. Hadley, who chanced to be passing by, wrapped an overcoat around her and the flames were extinguished, but not before she was severely burned. The doctors think she will recover.
“Mrs. Bornstein rushed through the burning oil and carried her children out of danger.”
Before electric light and safe heating, a knocked lamp could turn a kitchen into a trap. The story is a small domestic disaster, but it records a mother's instant gamble and a passerby's overcoat—the kind of neighborly rescue that rarely makes the history books.
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