"Not long after this, in February 1925, Buckman added a piece of high drama to her own life that must have been the equal of any event in an operatic plot. During a performance of Tristan at the Olympia Theatre in Liverpool her dress caught fire. Although not seriously hurt, she was besieged by newspaper reporters the moment the curtain came down. They all wanted to hear the story in her own words:

It all happened so quickly I hardly realised what an extraordinary escape I had experienced. I was holding a torch filled with methylated spirit during the second act and 1 must have held it too high, for the spirit ran out onto the stage and immediately caught fire. A wall of flame sprang up from the stage and set my silk frock alight. Fortunately I had the presence of mind to remain quite still by the wings, and my dresser, who was watching at the side, ran to me and flung her woollen coat round my burning dress and put the flames out. Some of the stage hands also rushed to my assistance and it is to all of them that I owe my life. Of course I was frightfully shaken and nervous, but I was determined to finish my performance. I was slightly scorched, but the miracle is that I was not burned to death. It was all a matter of seconds. My dress burned to bits.

Instead of a torch, Buckman finished the scene waving a much less hazardous scarf."

Rosina Buckmann

(in Simpson, A. / Downes, P. 1992, S. 35)