Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
July 12, 1907
Los Angeles

Gas Co. employees found a man scalded over the lower half of his body wandering the yards at Center and Aliso after he fell into a vat of boiling water produced by the carbon pit. The man, who was unidentified but believed to be J. Cochran of 232 E. 1st St., was so badly burned that much of his skin tore away when he ripped off his clothes.

Gas workers called General Hospital, which held a contract for serving the company, but after waiting 45 minutes for an ambulance while trying to allay the man’s pain, they called the Receiving Hospital, which sent an ambulance immediately. The two emergency crews arrived at the same time and the man was finally taken to a hospital.

The Times said: “He was very much dazed by pain and but little could be gained from him. At midnight, his condition was serious. At first, information was refused at the hospital, but later it was learned that there was some chance for recovery.”

There was apparently no follow-up to the story, so it’s impossible to tell whether J. Cochran survived.