January 15, 1961

Woman dies in trailer blaze

       Fire, believed to have been started from a lighted cigarette, swept through a mobile trailer and killed a 48-year-old Johnson county woman early Sunday morning.  The blaze occurred at the Glendale Trailer Court, located about five miles west of Greenwood, on the Johnson-Marion County Line road.  Private funeral services were held for the deceased woman at an Indianapolis Funeral Home on Tuesday morning and burial took place in Greenwood cemetery.  The blaze was discovered about 2 a.m. Sunday by Hubert Jackson, a nearby trailer resident.  He saw flames under the trailer and reported the fire to William Goins, owner of the trailer court, who called the fire department.  Mrs. Frances Gillum, a divorcee of three months, lived in the trailer alone and perished as a result of the flames.  Mrs. Gillum was said to have arrived home shortly after midnight.  Her trailer is the last one in a row which extends south to the creek stream.  She was a waitress in a Southside Indianapolis restaurant and usually arrived home late at night, according to residents of the court.  From the part of the trailer burned the most and as a result of the way the flames traveled through the trailer, firemen expressed a belief that the woman came home, lighted a cigarette and slumped down on a davenport.  She probably went to sleep and dropped the cigarette on a rug which began to burn and slowly asphyxiated her.  Her body was burned beyond recognition and Coroner Jack Walters, of Franklin, rendered a verdict of accidental death.

         Members of the White River Township Fire Department responded to the alarm and the flames had entirely engulfed the trailer when the department arrived.  The firemen responded rapidly to the alarm but residents at the trailer court said the trailer was almost destroyed a few minutes after it was discovered.  Flames burned through the floor and after the blaze got oxygen from the open floor, the rest of the trailer became a torch of flame.  One woman resident of the court said that when she saw the flames, they were “shooting 20 feet in the air” and the firemen didn’t have a chance to save it.  “It was too badly burned before anybody saw it, I guess,” the woman stated.  Everything in the trailer was destroyed along with all personal effects of Mrs. Gillum.  The heat inside the trailer was extremely high since practically everything was charred showing that flames had spread rapidly.

         As is the custom in the fire departments when a life is lost in a fire, trained investigators are brought onto the scene.  Howard Boegaholtz, who leads the arson department of the Indiana State Fire Marshal’s office, was called to the scene and investigated as did detective Malcolm Heuss, of the Indiana State Police.  Sheriff William Stillabower was also called in to investigate.  Russell Young, White River Township Fire Chief, said damage to the trailer amounted to about $3,500.

         The victim of the accident was a sister of Oral C. Hilderbrand, of Southport, a former major league baseball player.  Mrs. Gillum was the mother of five children, one of whom was killed in a car-train crash in Indianapolis several years ago.  A daughter and three sons survive.  Her survivors include the daughter, Suzanne Gillum, of Indianapolis; three sons, Gary Lee Gillum, Norman Eugene Gillum, of Indianapolis; Donald Keith Gillum, with the Navy at Guantanamo; and her father, of Indianapolis.  Others remaining are four grandchildren, three sisters, Mrs. Geraldine Westerfield, Mrs. Hollice Pollard, and Mrs. Florence Brasier, both of Indianapolis; and two brothers, Oral Hildebrand, of Southport, and W. L. Hildebrand, of Indianapolis.  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)
 

    
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