NEWSPAPERS: Two children die in Butte Falls fire, Jackson County, Oregon 

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Medford (Oregon) Mail Tribune, Sunday, 30 Sep 1945, p. 1

BUTTE FALLS BABES DIE IN FIRE

Mother's Efforts At Rescue Fail in Blazing Home

Tragedy Comes to Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Wells Saturday Morning

Two infant sons of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Wells, Butte Falls, were burned to
death about 9 a.m. yesterday when their home was destroyed by fire. Mrs.
Wells was brought to the Sacred Heart hospital by Mrs. R. E. and Ben
Edmondson and is in a serious but not critical condition.

According to Deputy Coroner Carlos Morris, who investigated the tragedy,
Mrs. Wells had crossed the street to the home of Mrs. Roberta Hemple and as
she stepped out of the Hemple home she heard her other four children in the
yard screaming and saw flames shooting out of windows in the house.

With Robert Hemple, 16, Mrs. Wells rushed to the house and was unable to
gain entrance through the front door, Morris said. She broke out glass in a
bedroom window with her hand and attempted to remove Kent, one month old,
from the bed but was unable to do so. Ward, 18 months, was in a crib in the
bedroom but his mother was also unable to remove him.

The father had gone deer hunting at 5:30 a.m. yesterday and did not return
until 1 p.m. A new drag saw was all that was saved as the house was
completely gutted. [illegible] fighting crew was unable to check the
conflagration.

According to Morris, a son, Jack, came down stairs and found the fire in a
front room stove had gone out. He took what he thought was kerosene to put
on the blaze. The liquid was a highly inflammable cleaning fluid and
quickly ignited, spreading throughout the room. The boy attempted to
extinguish the blaze but fled when he was unable to do so.

The place was known as the Heckerthorn house and had been purchased by the
Wells about two years ago.

A half-sister, Gale Robertson, resides at 322 North Oakdale avenue and is
employed at the What Not cafe. A grandmother, Mrs. Mary Ellis of Medford,
also survives. 

Funeral services will be held Tuesday at 2:30 p.m., at the Conger-Morris
chapel with interment in the I.O.O.F. cemetery.