The  Shelbyville  Republican
Tuesday November 18, 1947
Page 1
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MRS. COWIN  BADLY  BURNED
IN  EXPLOSION
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Explosion Occurs While Woman Is
Trying To Start Fire in Kitchen Range
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          An elderly Shelby county woman is near death in the Major hospital here last night as a result of a stove explosion in a farm home near Rays Crossing yesterday morning.
          Mrs. Nora Cowin, 65, wife of  Frank Cowin, suffered third degree burns in the explosion which ignited her clothing.  Nearly every part of her body was burned.
          It was the second accident of its kind within a week in this vicinity.  The first victim is still in the hospital.
          Alone at the time of the explosion early Monday, Mrs. Cowin first sank into a chair from shock as her clothing caught fire, and then rushed screaming from her home on the  Eston Robinson  farm, one mile east of Rays Crossing.  She collapsed in the yard outside.
          The seat of the chair in which she sat for but a moment was ignited, but the flames burned out without spreading in the home.  The Manilla fire department rushed to the scene but somehow the flames had died.
          The blast occurred as Mrs. Cowin was starting a fire in the kitchen range.  She apparently had poured kerosene, or possibly gasoline, over the fuel in the stove in an attempt to ignite it.  The blast followed and was believed to have showered the inflammable liquid over her clothing.
          Her husband, tenant on the Robinson farm, was in a field nearly three miles away when the explosion occurred.  Neighbors reached Mrs. Cowin before he could arrive.
          The Cowin's have lived on the Robinson farm the past two years, and formerly lived near Shelbyville.  The have several children.
Contributed by Barb Huff

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