Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 19 February 1892
Explosion of a Paraffin Lamp At Denaby.
A Woman Killed—The Son Injured.
An inquest was had at the Reresby Arms, Denaby Main, yesterday afternoon, before Mr. Wightman, coroner, on the body of Elizabeth Gosling, aged 55, a married woman, who died from the effects of injuries caused by the explosion of a paraffin lamp on the previous Tuesday night.
The jury were as follows: Abnel Wilson (foreman), Hy. Cooks, Alfred Parking, John Johnson, Edwin Whitehouse, Benjamin Street. John Gibson. Jas. Pickard. Thos. Perks. George Flinders. Wm. Each click, and Peter Perry.
Richard Gosling, the husband of the deceased was the first witness, and said he was employed by the Denaby Main Colliery Company as a sinker. His wife had been a healthy woman and was not subject to fits. On the 16th instant, about half-past eight, he went to bed, leaving the deceased seated at the table sewing. A stepson, aged 16, was with his mother. He did not hear the stepson go to bed. Two lodgers were also downstairs.
About 1037, he heard a cry of “Fire,” and “Dick get up, the house is on fire!”
He went downstairs and saw his wife on fire, and the stepson trying to put out the flames. He believed his wife was then dead. He believed the lamp and exploded as she was in the act of going upstairs to bed. The lamp always add a quart of paraffin in it. She had been in the habit of taking it upstairs. Glass lame near the top of the stairs, and he suppose this would be the effect of the explosion. He thought the draft that sent the flame into the holder of the paraffin. He believed all had gone to bed excepting his wife.
By the Jury: We had four lodgers. One was at work, and another came home. There was a part of a leg of mutton and part of a ham on the table, ready for the lodgers.
The Foreman: Was it true there was a quarrel? – No.
You came home drunk? – No, I was fresh.
The Coroner: That is why you went to bed so early? – Yes.
A certificate was handed to the coroner to the effect that the stepson was suffering from severe burns on his hands and face, and that it was not advisable for him to leave the house, as erysipelas might supervene.
William Henry Rose, the injured son, had deposed, in the presence of a constable:
“I am a sinker for the Denaby Main Colliery Company, and employed at the Cadeby new pit. On Tuesday I went to bed at 9:35 PM. When I had been in bed some time I heard a crash downstairs, then I heard my mother about for help. I at once got out of bed and on getting to the bottom of the stairs and found them on fire, my mother inflames at their head laying in a chair. I then threw over a jacket and shawl. I called my stepfather (Richard Gosling) up, and he rushed past me on the stairs. By this time she was quite dead, and in order to put out the flames I see through a bucket of water, and my stepfather pulled her from the chair to the floor. I think the cause of the fire is due to the lamp exploding, for there were pieces of glass on the top step but to the stairs, and the remainder on the lamp, was on the bottom step broken. I do not blame anyone for it. I was the last going to bed, and the first to find her.”
The Coroner remarked that the currents was obviously accidental, and the jury returned a verdict to this effect.