Kitchen Fires
June 5th 2011 08:16
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Dramas in the
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kitchen
A woman in the late 1800s kneeling in front of an open flame while cooking. Photo courtesy vintagecookbooksstore.blogspot.com
Safety regulations that we have in the kitchen today were non-existent in households that often cooked over a naked flame.
In Adelaide, South Australia in 1910 the newspaper of the day reported on a Mrs H Pelton who was cooking meat over the fire when her light muslin dress caught alight.
Mrs Pelton survived the trauma by jumping into some water in the kitchen, but it is a good example of the perils women faced with their long skirts and open fires.
In 1925 Norma Molloy of North Perth was burnt from head to foot through her clothes catching the flame from the kitchen fire and the sad tale of four and a half year old Muriel Janet Elizabeth Hickson in 1912 who was burnt to death from the fire on the kitchen stove in Newtown was told in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Her mother Edith Hickson said the only way she could account for the accident was that when the young girl went to have a look at the stew on the stove the back draft blew the flame onto her clothes.
The mother herself was badly burnt trying to get the clothes off her young daughter.
In the late 1800s, early 1900s women had to kneel in front of the hearth while cooking the family meal. It took awhile for early stoves to progress to their current height.
Wearing such large billowing skirts was always a danger under such circumstances.
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