CLIPPED FROMThe Ottawa CitizenOttawa, Ontario, Canada18 Aug 1947, Mon • Page 4
Fire stalked the window scores of picturesque Mississippi Lake, four miles west of here when blazing gasoline from a gasoline stove turned a small cabin into a funeral pyre for two little girls and burned 13 other persons, three of whom are in serious condition in hospital at Ottawa.
The party of men women and children, all residents of Eastview near Ottawa, had arrived by truck at midnight and a late before-bed supper was being prepared when gasoline, spilling from an over-filled tank in the stove,was ignited by an oil lamp. In a matter of seconds the frame cabin was a raging inferno and those who escaped managed to do so by only the slimmest margin.
The Dead Denyse Leblanc aged 5. daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Marcel Leblanc 44 Ivy street Eastview
Claudette Gravellc. aged 5 daughter of Mr. and Mrs. S. Gravelle, 139 Geneva street, Eastview.
In Hospital Marcel Leblanc, 36. father of one of the dead children, in Ottawa General hospital with severe burns about the head, face, arms and body.
Royal Marier. 48, of 5 McKay street. Eastview, in Ottawa General Hospital suffering from bums to the arms, legs and head.
Noeila Marier 15 -year -old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Royal Marier. in Ottawa General Hospital with burns to- the face, arms, legs, back and lower part of the body.
Others Burned Severe
Gravelle, 31. of 139 a Geneva street, Eastview, father of Claudette Gravelle, burns to the face and hands and bad lacerations to the right.hand.
Mrs. S. Gravelle. 28, bruised head and burns about the face
Helene Gravelle, aged 4, sister ef Claudette Gravelle, burns and abrasions to the face and forehead.
Mrs. Yvette Leblanc, 32. mother of Denyse Leblanc, burns to the head and hands.
Claude and Faulette Leblanc 7 and 6 years respectively, children of Mr. and Mrs. Marcel Leblanc, both burned about the feet and upper body.
Gerard Marier, 31, of 46 Ivy Street, Eastview, burns to the forehead and face.
Mrs. Gerard Marier, 28, burns to the right hand.
Mrs. Royal Marier, 46, of 52 McKay street, Eastview extensive burns to the face and head.
Mrs. Julie Goulet. 59 of 46 Ivy street, Eastview, grandmother of Claudette Gravelle. burns to both legs.
Lyse Marier. five – year – old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gerard Marier was the only member of the party of 16 who was not burned or otherwise injured.
Shocked and still partially dazed; survivors of the tragic fire unfolded the story to The Citizen Sunday morning. Grief stricken over the loss of her little girl Mrs. Yvette Leblanc told how she and her husband and their three children had left their Eastview home late Saturday evening in company with the other members cf the party, looking forward to spending the night and all day Sunday on the shores of the lake.
They made the trip by truck and upon arriving at Mississippi Jake, the six children were all put to bed. While the women busied themselves inside preparing a late supper, the men sat around outside the cabin chatting and smoking . Mrs. Leblanc said she had filled the tank on the gasoline stove when she noticed that some of the liquid had overflowed. She saw the gasoline run across the floor towards a table where a lighted oil lamp was standing but before she had time a realize there was any danger, the gasoline ignited and a sheet of fire leaped towards the stove.
The filled tank in the stove exploded a moment later and the entire cabin was quickly enveloped in flames. Four of the children were sleeping on a bed while the others were on a mattress on the f loor. Mrs. Leblanc told The Citizen. When the gasoline ignited they grabbed two of the children and thrust them out through the window after smashing the glass with her bare hands. She turned in an attempt to get more of the children outside but the flames had become so intense she was forced to jump through the window to save her own life. She smashed her way through a boarded-up window.
“I watched through the window while my daughter, Noella. tried to drag two of the children outside. She dragged and lifted but she could not manage it. Her clothing was burned away and her arms, legs, back and hair were burned. I shouted to her to get outside and she finally gave up her attempts to save the children.”
Mrs. Marcel Leblanc said that when she got outside her husband “dived in through the window just into thewater.” There was another explosion just as he got inside and his clothes were instantly a mass of fire. “He could hear the children screaming inside the cabin but he could not find them.” she sobbed.
Almonte Gazette August 1947
A holiday on Mississippi Lake ended in tragedy early Sunday when two tots were burned to death and 13 others injured by a fire which destroyed an eight-by ten-foot cabin. All from Eastview, an Ottawa suburb , and interrelated. The party reached Lake Park, a summer resort, four miles west of Carleton Place, by truck early Sunday. Within a few hours flaming gasoline from a stove set the tindered dry cabin ablaze, trapping six children and ten adults. Only one escaped unscathed.
Four persons, including William J Bittle of Carleton Place, operator of a refreshment booth and fishing at the summer resort, were the first to hear the screams and see the people try to push their way through the narrow doorway of the flame-filled cabin. Driving home from Carleton Place, Mr. Bittle parked his car on a side-road and ran 200 yards to the building. By the time he arrived it had become an inferno. “I tried to get in, but the terrific heat kept me back,” he said. “The father of one of the children who had escaped tried to jam his way through to get his child, but he was pulled back. It would have been suicide to attempt to enter.”
Guests of the nearby Queen’s Hotel came to help and Doctor Ross MacDowall of Carleton Place, a summer resident who lived nearby, gave first aid to those most seriously burned. The cabin was rented by Mr. and Mrs. Royal Marrier who, with their 15-year-old daughter, Noella, planned to stay a week on the lake. They all suffered burns. The other 13 intended to spend only the weekend.
About an hour after the outbreak, Chief Alvin Baird and 16 volunteer firemen from Carleton Place arrived. By that time the flames had razed the cabin and had spread to two vacant cabins eight feet away. They also were destroyed. Two of the men and a girl of 15 were rushed to the Rosamond Memorial Hospital, Almonte, suffering from severe burns. Later on Sunday they were transferred to the Civic Hospital in Ottawa.
CLIPPED FROMThe Ottawa CitizenOttawa, Ontario, Canada03 Jun 1947, Tue • Page 22
The cabins were rented to Mr. Marier by Thomas Gerrard, of 146 Marlborough avenue, Ottawa. Mr. Gerrard told The Journal his cabins wer partly – covered by insurance but his loss would be about $1,000. He doubted a rumor that the gasoline stove had exploded. “Whenever there is fire and a gasoline stove, too, people always say that”, he said. He pointed to the tank from the stove salvaged from the burned cabin and said it was intact. Firemen under Chief Alvin Balrd had to go far afield for water and stretched hundreds of yards of hose to the site. Chemicals were used but little was salvaged from th burned out houses.
One of the Lake Park Octagonal Cottages – Fred Castle
Nevis Cottage and the McLarens
Did you Know About the Wedding Cake Cottage?
What do You Know About the Hawthorne Cottage?
The Cottages of Mississippi Lake — Carleton Place Ontario
The Cottages of Mississippi Lake — Carleton Place Ontario
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