GAS EXPLOSION

Wrecks House and Seriously Injures Oswald Hickey

Lights Match in Gas Filled Room-Burned Man May Recover-Wife’s Hands and Hair Burned-$1200 Damage Done-House Insured for $1000

[People’s Press, 16 January 1912]

WRECKED BY GAS EXPLOSION

             The above is from the photo of the house at 410 Division street, Welland, which was wrecked by a gas explosion on Sunday morning, Jan. 14^th., and as result of which Oswald Hickey died on Friday morning last. The house  is one of those owned by the Cozy Homes Co.

             Oswald Hickey is so badly burnt that the chances of his recovery are considered about even, and his wife’s hands are painfully burned and her hair nearly all burned off, as the result of an explosion of gas, which occurred at Cosy Homes, 410 East Division St. (Welland) at 3 o’clock on Sunday morning. The explosion was caused by the lighting of a match in a room which was filled with gas.

             A small gas heater had been left burning in the hallway which adjoins all the rooms in the upstairs of the  house. It is believed that the pressure became so low during the night that the fire went out and later the gas came on at full pressure again, filling the four rooms of the upstairs. Either that or the changes in the pressure of gas dislocated the rubber hose used to feed the stove.

             At three o’clock Hickey arose to light the gas beneath the tank in the bath room, and when he struck the match a tremendous explosion occurred. He was thrown against the ceiling and fell in the bath tub. A second elapsed before another blast sounded in the bedroom next to the bathroom, in which Mrs. Hickey was lying in bed. She was thrown from her bed half-way through the open doorway of the bathroom.

             The first blow-up took the roof off the front part of the house, and the second blew the east side completely out of the building, threw half the roof over onto the next house where it hung, and bulged the back and west sides of the building out of place so they are leaning ready to fall at any moment.

             Fire broke out immediately and Hickey shouted to his wife to leave the house, following close behind her. He ran a hundred feet from the house and then lay down and rolled in the snow to put out the fire which was burning his night dress. Naked and burned from head to foot he reached the boiler room of the Supreme Heating Co. His wife ran to the home of Mr. Joseph Hickey, Oswald Hickey;s brother, at James Blackwell’s, on East Main street, where the injured man was taken 30 minutes later.

             In the meantime Stanley Howick, who lives next door, and three young men named Walker, had reached the scene and removed nearly all the furniture before the fire spoilt it. An alarm was sent in to the fire department and in short time the crew was on the job. Difficulties were thick in the path of the fighters though; the hydrant in front of the house was frozen up, and when water was secured from another the nozzle of the hose was choked with ice. Quick work was done by the department in putting out the flames. The verandah is unscorched and little of the interior of the house is injured by fire, but it so ripped apart by the explosion that the entire house will have to be rebuilt.

             Two doctors were called to care for the wounded man and woman and after soothing the pain and mending the injuries as far as possible, they declared that Mr. Hickey has a good chance of recovery. Danger of complications setting in is all that they fear. Mrs. Hickey is only burnt on the hands and bruised by being thrown by the explosion. Her hair is also destroyed for the present. Mr. Hickey is burnt almost all over his body, very deeply in some places. His eyes he is unable to open yet.

             About $150 worth of clothing and furniture was lost in the fire. The house, which is owned by The Cozy Homes Co., was valued at $1000, and was insured for that amount.

             On Monday noon Mr. Hickey was resting comfortably. The physician’s report of his condition was very favorable. The burns were showing signs of quick recovery.