Transcribed from the Belmont Dispatch, Nov. 4, 1904.
EXPLOSION KILLED
Gas Explosion Wrecks The Breeze Office And Kills Employee
Miss Bernice Palmer, Age Nineteen, Died From Her Injuries––Leak In The Gas Line Filled Room With Gas––Breeze Will Be Issued As Usual
Special To The Dispatch
Bolivar, N.Y. November 4th.––An explosion of gas in the office of the Bolivar Breeze Tuesday morning so injured Miss Bernice Palmer, aged 19 years, a compositor in the office, that she died Tuesday night, and badly wrecked the upper part of the office which was used as a composing room.
A supply line running along the ceiling evidently sprung a leak sometime during the night and filled the upper part of the composing room with gas. When Miss Palmer came to work Tuesday morning she lighted a match to start a fire in a small heating stove, but the explosion [???].
Foreman O.C. Herrick and assistant Miss Eva Coats and Miss Rose Nichols another compositor were in the office below.
Hearing the explosion, Mr. Herrick rushed upstairs. As he reached in the door entering the composing room, Miss Palmer had reached the door and was about to open it. Miss Palmer's clothing was ablaze and Mr. Herrick took his overcoat off and wrapped it about her. In a moment the fire about her body was extinguished and Miss Palmer was assisted to the home of J.P. Newell and Dr. S. [?] McKenzie and Dr. Dorr Cutler were called. After attending to her immediate wants, she was removed to her home on Wellsville street. Miss Palmer's clothing from the waist up was nearly burned from her body, and her injuries were such that she died Tuesday evening about ten o'clock.
The fire company was called out and subdued a small blaze which had started in the attic of the building [???].