"PAPA, PLEASE PUT ME OUT."
Cried Little Ethel Phipps, Whose
Clothing Was Aflame.
"Papa, please put me out," little Ethel Phipps, 4324 Forest avenue, yesterday morning at 9 o'clock called to her father, E. C. Phipps. Hearing the cry, but not understanding it, Mr. Phipps hastily went from the dining room to the kitchen of his home, there to see his 4-year-old child enveloped in flames. She had been to the basement to burn some papers, and had undertaken to light the gas in the furnace. The "flare back" had caught her clothing, and the child hurried upstairs for help. When she reached the kitchen flames were from the hem of her little dress to her neck. A coat was thrown around her and the little girl drenched with water from the kitchen faucets.
Although almost all the child's clothing was burned, the only bodily injuries incurred were burns on the back of her head and neck. Her father's hands were severely burned during the fight to extinguish the flames which threatened the life of the little girl. After Dr. W. C. West had examined the little patient, he said that there would be no permanent marks left on the child's body.
"It is almost incredible," said Dr. West, "that the child could have gone with burning clothes form the cellar to the kitchen, wait for help, and be alive."
