28 August, 2015
MessageToEagle.com - On August 27, 1938, a 22-year-old woman named
Phyllis Newcombe was leaving a dance together with her fiance, Henry McAusland.
at the Shire Hall in Chelmsford, England.
When she approached a stairway just outside of the
dance hall, Newcombe's dress caught on fire, starting with the hemline on the
floor in front of her. The flames spread upwards rapidly, and she turned and
ran back into the dance hall.
As she collapsed just inside the hall, covered in
flames by this time, several of the men at the dance threw their coats over her
and smothered the flames. An ambulance was called but, due to the towns' lack
of resources, the ambulance took over twenty minutes to arrive before rushing
Newcombe to the hospital.
She was severely burned on her legs and body, yet was
considered to be in "fairly satisfactory" condition on September 2
and was aware and chatting with her family and fiance.
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Despite this, she died on September 15 due to
hypostatic pneumonia, caused by toxaemia, in turn cuased by sepsis of her
wounds.
An inquest was immediately called for.
McAusland also volunteered that Newcombe's dress had
been cleaned six weeks before the dance, and suggested that maybe a chemical
agent had assisted its combustion.
The coroner brought in a verdict of Accidental
Death, and recorded that the clothing had caught fire from some reason
unknown.
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Coroner L.F. Beccles commented on the incident,
"From all my experience I have never come across a case so very mysterious
as this."
MessageToEagle.com
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