This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Pilcher, Hummel, Yaunt, Classification: Death Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/gh.2ADI/5463 Message Board Post: The Warren Weekly News, Thursday, January 23, 1902 Burned to Death. Van Buren News: "While working about a gasometer, on the Mort Hummel farm, about four miles north west of town, last Monday (13th), William Pilcher, a young man, was enveloped in flames by a gas explosion. He was fatally burned before the eyes of his companion, John Yaunt. He died Tuesday morning. The victim and Yaunt was turning the engine wheel. There was an accumulation of gas, and a spark from the ignition tube caused the explosion. Yaunt tore off some of Pilcher's clothing and rolled him in the snow, but the flames had already done their work. The unfortunate boy was fifteen years of age."