1904: SIX BURN TO DEATH IN CALHOUN FIRE - Just Off Yellow Creek

(10/11/2023)
SIX BURNED TO DEATH

WHOLE FAMILY WIPED OUT BY BURNING OF HOUSE

Calhoun County WV (AP) -- H. S. FLING, his wife and four children were burned to death in a fire which destroyed their home at 4 o'clock in the morning near *Lowther, in Calhoun County, W. Va., and two other persons sleeping in the house were so severely burned that they are not expected to live. The locality is far from telegraph and telephone communications. The names of the injured are not known, but it is said here that one of the two are expected to die from their injuries is ROBERT ALEXANDER, JR., of Parkersburg.

With the house of the FLING'S, a derrick and boiler house at an oil well belonging to Johnson, Upham and Ralston, of Parkersburg, were destroyed and the supposition is that the fire was caused by an explosion of gas from the oil well.

Escaping gas from the well probably crept along the ground until it reached the house, where a light was burning. Not a sign of the house was left standing, and the family were all killed almost instantly.

* We had not heard of Lowther, Calhoun WV, but it was located just off Yellow Creek.