Yankton Press & Dakotan Monday, October 3, 1892 — page 4
A HORRIBLE DEATH.
Charles Winchester Another Victim of Gasoline; He is Literally Broiled Alive in Plain View of Several People.
Charles Winchester, proprietor of the Madison House in this city, died about 10 o’clock last night from the effects of burns received at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, by an explosion of gasoline. He was literally broiled alive, and the story of the accident is sufficiently horrifying to make a professional murderer wince.
Mr. Winchester went into a small bedroom adjoining the kitchen in his hotel, after dinner. to apply gasoline to the walls and ceiling of the room for the purpose of exterminating various kinds of vermin, supposed to have invaded there. He saturated a heavy cloth with gasoline from a five gallon can of the fluid and left the can uncorked, just outside the bedroom door into the kitchen, which door was closed. He rubbed the saturated rag over one wall and the ceiling and was stooping to get at an obscure crack in the floor, when suddenly a loud explosion was heard - the atmosphere in the room turned into a blaze of sulfurous blue, and Mr. Winchester’s clothing took fire. He rushed for the door, but seemed unable to open it, so that he was in the midst of that veritable furnace for several seconds. Finally he opened the door, rushed into the back yard of the hotel and jumped into a tub filled with slop from the hotel. As he ran he shouted fire and the attention of a number of people was attracted. Mr. P. Dowling rushed to the scene through the alley and lifted Winchester from the tub. Winchester then threw himself to the ground and rolled over and over in the dust, shrieking in his frenzy, “Put out the fire. Put out the fire.”
Several men had reached the scene by this time and an effort was made to catch and hold the burning man. But it could not be done. His flesh was burning with a green light, every atom of clothing and his mustache and hair were burned away and he ran frantically from one place to another uttering cries of anguish and misery. Finally he grabbed a blanket which lay in the backyard, enveloped himself in it, and suffered the bystanders to lead him into the house. Meanwhile a fire alarm had sounded and half the populace was gathered at the scene. But the fire resulting from the explosion had been extinguished. The interior woodwork was badly charred but the damage is slight.
Mr. Winchester lived until 10 o’clock retaining consciousness until the last and the above record of the accident is in accordance with a statement made by him, a half hour before he died. He was 42 years old and a native of Corina, Maine. Twelve years ago he located at Forestburg, S.D. and two years ago removed to Gayville, this county. He was principal of the Gayville school for one year and last spring came to Yankton and purchased the Madison house. He was a man of upright character, moral and congenial, a member of the Order of Oddfellows, and had a multitude of friends who will hear of his awful taking away with profound sorrow. He is survived by a wife and a daughter 13 years old. The funeral occurred at 3 p.m. today under the direction of the Oddfellows. Nobody knows how the accident occurred.
It is well known fact that at ordinary temperature gasoline continually gives off inflammable vapor, and a light or fire some distance from it will ignite it, through the medium of this vapor. It is said that one pint of gasoline will impregnate 200 cubic feet of air and make it explosive; and it depends upon the proportions of air and vapor whether it becomes a burning gas or destructive explosive. It is supposed that the gasoline in this particular bedroom produced enough inflatable vapor to invade the kitchen where a gasoline stove was burning, and that the atmosphere in both rooms took fire at once. One of the girls in the hotel, standing near the gasoline stove saw a green flame dart across the room and her apron and dress took fire. She was not burned, however. That shaft of green flame went straight toward the bedroom in which Mr. Winchester was at work. Very shortly after this flame was noticed the notes of the explosion were heard.
Insurance companies will not insure houses where gasoline is used except upon promise of the owner that the gasoline stove is tightly and entirely closed and burning while the reservoir is being filled. That no artificial light or fire save incandescent electricity shall be in use in the room, where reservoir is being filled and that no gasoline except that in the reservoir shall be kept on the premises. The danger lies in exposing it to fire.
~Volunteer submitter