Ballantyne's store disaster
Encyclopedia
The Ballantyne's fire on 18 November 1947 remains the deadliest fire in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 history. Forty one people died in the blaze in the Christchurch Central City
Christchurch Central City
Christchurch Central City is the geographical centre and the heart of Christchurch, New Zealand. It is defined as the area within the four avenues and thus includes the densely built up central city, some less dense surrounding areas of residential, educational and industrial usage, and green...

; all were employees who found themselves trapped by the fire or were overcome by smoke while evacuating the store complex without a fire alarm or evacuation plan.

Background

Ballantynes is a Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

 institution that traces its origins back to a millinery and drapery business that commenced by selling straw hats and accessories from the front room of a Cashel Street residence in 1854. After being named Dunstable House and going through a couple of owners, and a couple of buildings, as it grew, it was purchased by John Ballantyne in 1872. The business was managed as a series of partnerships involving Ballantyne family members until formed as the company J. Ballantyne & Co. in 1920.

From its humble beginnings the Ballantynes business had progressively expanded until, by 1947, it occupied 80 m of street front in Cashel Street, 50 m in Colombo Street
Colombo Street
Colombo Street is a main road of the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It runs south-north through the centre of Christchurch with a break at Cathedral Square. As with many other central Christchurch streets, it is named for a colonial Anglican bishopric, Colombo, in what at the time was known as...

 and another 21 m in Lichfield Street. This prime corner site covered about an acre that contained seven conjoined buildings, six of which had 3 or more wooden floor that were interconnected on multiple levels by large passageways between the buildings to allow staff and customers to move freely about the store. The store's interior partitions had untreated soft wood-fibre Pinex board linings that had been permitted by the Christchurch City Council contrary to its own bylaws. The buildings, which were considered a factory, had passed a Labour Department inspection in 1943. Two of the buildings had been constructed before fire escapes had been a mandatory building requirement and the Fire Brigade had not required them to be installed later, despite having a bylaw since 1930 where they could have directed the building owners to install fire escapes.

Fire protection was provided by manual fire extinguishers, although staff were not formally trained in their use. There were manually operated fire doors that could be closed across the openings between buildings. However, klaxons that had been installed during the second world war and the Vigilant sprinkler fire alarm in one building had not been maintained and both were eventually removed. Although the store had held evacuation drills during wartime these had ended when hostilities ceased. There was no emergency evacuation plan and evacuation was left to the initiative of individual department heads. Due to high staff turnover, many staff only knew the layout of their own workrooms and were unaware of alternative egress routes.

At the time of the fire Ballantynes employed 458 people, over 300 of them were women, many of whom worked on the upper floors in various back-office departments, including millinery, dress-making, and bookkeeping. There were also an estimated 250 to 300 shoppers in the main ground and first floor retail areas, all of whom were safely evacuated by the retail staff.

Fire

The seat of the fire was in a cellar storeroom in Congreve's Building, which was located at southern end of the Colombo Street frontage of the complex. The cause of the fire was never established. Although an electrical fault or a discarded cigarette butt were both suggested as possibilities, the former could not be excluded by the commission of enquiry while the latter was considered unlikely because Keith Smith, the employee who was last working in the cellar, had left at about 3:30 pm for his afternoon tea break, had gone across the street to smoke a cigarette with a friend, since Ballantynes had a strict no-smoking policy on its premises.

Just after 3:30 pm, smoke from the fire was first noticed coming up the cellar stairs. Without a formal fire evacuation plan, staff discovering the fire informed their floor manager. When the owners were informed they instructed that the fire brigade be called and the building evacuated.
The shopping area on the ground floor was evacuated by sales employees. But staff in other areas of the building complex were not immediately made aware of the fire because there was no fire alarm. Some staff returned to their work areas after their tea-break while others evacuated the building. Even the arriving fire brigade crews initially did not realize there were still people on the upper floors of the building complex.

The first telephone call to the fire brigade was logged at 3:46 pm, thought the female caller only told the brigade that she had been told to inform them there was a cellar fire at Ballentynes. When the first fire appliance arrived about two minutes later at the Lichfield Street entrance the firefighters saw no sign of fire there, so moved around into Colombo Street where they saw smoke coming out of an enclosed alleyway. They were met by Rodger Ballantyne, joint managing director, who showed the fire crew a back access way to the cellar. They spent about 10 minutes searching for the seat of the fire but were unable to locate it. Two other appliances had made their way to Ballantynes via Cashel Street and set up as the search commenced. The senior fire officer ordered a Brigade Call, although that order was only received by the fire station at 4:00 pm because the firefighter making the call had to first push though the crowd to get to a pharmacy and then had to wait for the overloaded telephone exchange lines to clear before he could make the call.

Many of the victims on the second floor died of smoke inhalation as they tried to leave via fire escapes.

Three women jumped from the windows of Pratt's Building, on the corner of Colombo and Cashel Streets, two landed on the verandah and were rescued by members of the public using a ladder and taken to hospital, while a third fell to the pavement and later died from her injuries in hospital. Kenneth Ballantyne, who had found himself trapped on the first floor along with some of the women from the credit department, and had climbed out onto a window ledge as the fire engulfed the floor behind him, was the last person to be rescued by firefighters.

Firefighters and Police were able to gain entry to the ground floor about 6 pm, where they found a number of bodies near the exits and others hanging from beams. None of the victims were identifiable and some were dismembered.

The fire was put out by 8 pm leaving the building as a gutted shell.

It took four days to dampen down hot spots, demolish unsafe walls and recover all the bodies.

Planned celebrations for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth
Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh
The wedding of Princess Elizabeth , and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh took place on 20 November 1947 at Westminster Abbey in London.-Engagement:...

that were due to be held on 20 November 1947 were cancelled and flags were instead flown at half mast throughout New Zealand, apart from a few official exemptions on Government Buildings. The Christchurch Cathedral bellringers cancelled their wedding peals that were to be recorded and later broadcast on radio.

A civic mass funeral was held on 23 November.

Commission of Enquiry

A commission later determined that the fire response was inadequate and the building did not meet fire codes, though it had passed its last inspection. It has been noted that office employees were not evacuated because the stores' owners required that insured equipment be stored away in a fireproof safe first.

Business recovery

After the fire, Balantynes continued to trade from its undamaged building in Lichfield Street. The fire-damaged buildings were demolished and the Ballantynes store was rebuilt on the corner of Colombo Street and Cashel Street. Despite the loss of life and commission of enquiry, Ballantynes makes no mention of the fire on their official website , choosing instead to end their history with the formation of the company in 1920.
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