Death
On the morning of April 1, 1968, after he'd gone to open up the law office in downtown Fontana, Courtney thought he smelled gas, and attempted to air out the building. Unfortunately, some source (most likely a spark when he flipped on a light switch) ignited the gas, and the office was rocked by a violent explosion, which blew out windows and buckled several walls. Legal papers were singed and Courtney was buffeted about the room. After emerging from the office (with his necktie still ablaze), people from an adjacent building helped snuff out his burning clothes and called paramedics. His scalp, face, neck, chest, and hands were badly burned. Courtney was taken to Fontana's Kaiser Foundation Hospital, where he died of pneumonia on April 15, due to complications and infections from his burns. Ironically, Courtney had saved a young neighbor girl from similar severe injuries at a Fourth of July party in the 1920s, when her frilly ballet dress was set on fire by another girl when she accidentally touched a lit sparkler to the flammable material in her friend’s dress during a dance presentation in his neighbor’s backyard. Hearing her screams, Courtney hurdled a hedge between the properties, chased down the panicked girl, and then wrapped her face and upper body with his coat, thereby sparing her from a lifetime of facial scars. J. Ira Courtney is buried in the Rialto Park Cemetery in Rialto, California.
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