April 15, 1960

4-year-old girl gravely burned

       Child’s play with matches ended tragically yesterday when a 4-year-old girl’s clothing burst into flames, burning her critically.  Little Linda Anderson, 1151 Fletcher Avenue, suffered second and third degree burns over about 75 per cent of her body and was reported near death in St. Francis Hospital.

         A garage owner and volunteer fireman who covered her body with his own to smother the flames and the child’s mother both were burned slightly.  Edward C. Rice, 32, Smith Valley, was working in the R&H Garage at 1201 Fletcher Avenue about 1 p.m.  Police said the girl was in her backyard nearby, playing with matches.  “I heard her screaming and I ran over there.  I don’t know what made me do it – I just took off over there,” Rice, a co-owner of the garage, related.  HE JUMPED over a 4-foot fence and spotted the child, her body wreathed in flames.  “I caught her as she ran around the side of the house.  She was all in flames.  It was pitiful.  The only thing that was left on her was her panties and part of the sweater around her neck,” he recalled.  Rice, a volunteer firemen for White River Township in Johnson County, told police:  “I just laid down over her and smothered out the flames the best I could with my body.  I didn’t have anything else to put them out with.”  Mrs. Pauline Anderson, 31, the girl’s mother, also had been summoned by the child’s screams.  She suffered burns on both hands helping beat out the flames and was treated at Methodist Hospital.

         Police said an ambulance dispatched to the Anderson home stalled at Shelby Street and Southeastern Avenue.  A second ambulance took the girl and her mother to Methodist.  Later Linda was transferred to St. Francis Hospital.  Rice was treated at the scene.  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)

(Click thumbnail to enlarge photo)
    

---