Explosion of a cook stove set a frame dwelling house afire and resulted in the death of four small children of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Sepich of Dunfermline Wednesday afternoon. The mother is in a critical condition from burns received while attempting to rescue her children. The victims ranged in age from 18 months to 5 years.
As near as can be learned from the neighbors and the little the mother has been able to tell, it is believed that she had replenished the cook stove with coal, putting slack over the fire. When she started to poke up the fire about 2:30 o’clock in preparation for the evening meal, when her husband returned from the mine, the gas formed in the stove caused an explosion, throwing fire about the house igniting the children’s clothing and other articles.
The cook stove, which exploded, was in the basement, and on the upper, or first floor, was a heating stove, both connected with the same chimney. The force of the explosion blew down the pipe of the heating stove, and also set fire to the room above.
Catching up a bucket of water, Mrs. Sepich threw it on the cook stove and ran up the inside stairs to save the children. The steam, smoke and heat was stifling.
Frantically the mother tried to reach the children. Into the smoke-filled upstairs she rushed, blindly groping for her little ones, who had been playing up the stairs from the basement. Before she could locate them, the mother was partially overcome and badly burned and rushed out for help and water. At the pump she fainted and there she was found by neighbor women.
The fire began about 2:30 o’clock and the one-story building was soon consumed. By 4:30 the bodies of three of the children were found huddled together in the southwest corner of the basement near the door leading to the outer stairway. They were burned beyond recognition, simply a charred mass in each case. Tenderly they were removed and laid in tubs covered with gunny sacks until the ambulance returned to take them to Canton.
Search for the body of the third child, the baby, Frances, was hampered by the fire still glowing in the mass of embers that had been the family’s home and when about half the basement had been cleared out the men had to quit. The following morning work was resumed and the fourth body was found in the ruins of the baby’s crib in the northwest corner of the room, where the child had either been sleeping or had sought refuge when the stove exploded.
The dead children are Matthew, John, Annie and Frances, aged five, four, three and one and one-half years, respectively. A fifth child, Mary aged six was in school when the tragedy occurred.
Mr. Sepich, who came out of the mine to find his home in ashes and neighbors working frantically to dig his four incinerated children out of the debris, while his wife was being cared for at the home of a neighbor, was frantic with grief. He accompanied his wife to Canton and spent the night with her at the Graham hospital, where she is receiving the best possible attention. The attending physician, Dr. Maguire, of St. David, says that if there were no additional developments, she may live.
At first it was feared pneumonia would develop. She had inhaled smoke and gas and was found unconscious in the snow.
The funeral of the four children was held Thursday morning at St. Mary’s church in Canton. The four little caskets were placed side by side in the church and were covered with flowers. It was attended by a large crowd of the St. David and Dunfermline people and many from Canton. After the service in the church the funeral cortege, with the four little coffins in one hearse proceeded to the cemetery.
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Mrs. Jack Sepich of Dunfermline, who made such a heroic fight to save the lives of her four children, burned to death when the Sepich home was burned Jan. 18, died Thursday February 19, from the burns sustained on that date. The family consisted of six persons of whom only two remain, the husband and the oldest daughter.
Current Obituaries in the Astoria South Fulton Argus