Patterson Cemetery District, Stanislaus County, CA 

Submitted by Gale Stroud and Burta Herger 26 Aug 2007

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Norton Densel L 691218 p1
Turlock Accident Causes Death of Patterson Man; Funeral services were held Monday afternoon in Evans Funeral
Chapel for Densel Lee Norton, 25, who died Friday morning in an industrial accident Thursday at the Varco-Pruden plant
in Turlock. Interment was Patterson District Cemetery. Norton and a coworker, H. T. Welch, were welding in a repair
shop when the accident occurred at 9:15 a.m., and the Patterson man died at 6:55 a.m. Friday in a Turlock hospital.
According to Turlock Rural Fire Chief Robert Schmidt, who helped conduct an investigation Thursday, a closed
container of flammable liquid apparently ruptured and then exploded soaking Norton s clothes and setting them on fire.
Cause of the disaster, as revealed by preliminary investigation, was the heating of the container by burning materials near
it. Norton s coworker suffered minor burns on his hands when he tried to rip the burning clothes off Norton. Other
workers in the plant rushed to the aid of the burning man, and put out the flames with a dry powder fire extinguisher.  An
ambulance then was summoned.  Survivors are Norton s widow, Georgina, a daughter, Teresa Norton; a son, Terry
Norton; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Norton, and a brother, Sandy Norton, all of Patterson.  The accident victim
was a native of Patterson and a veteran of the Vietnam War.