Ballantyne's store disaster

The Ballantyne's Department Store Fire on November 18 1947, remains the worst fire disaster in New Zealand history. Forty one people died in the blaze, mostly employees who had failed to evacuate the second floor workrooms at the time of the fire.

J. Ballantyne & Co, located at the corner of Colombo Street and Cashel Street in Christchurch, employed about 300 people at the time of the fire. Many of these worked on the second floor in various departments, including millinery, dress-making, and bookkeeping. The store consisted of seven conjoined buildings, the main ones being of three stories.

When the fire was first noticed, at 3:31 in the afternoon, the owners were informed and the fire department was called, but were informed it was only a cellar fire. The shopping area on the ground floor was evacuated by sales employees. When firemen arrived shortly after, they initially did not realize there were still people on the upper floors of the building.

Many of the victims on the second floor died of smoke inhalation as they tried to leave via fire escapes. Kenneth Ballantyne was the last person to be rescued by firefighters.

The fire was put out by 8pm leaving the building as a gutted shell. It took four days to recover all the bodies, and a civic mass funeral was held on 23 November.

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.

References

* [http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Kids/NZDisasters/Ballantynes.asp Ballantyne's fire]
* [http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/D/DisastersAndMishapsFires/TheBallantyneFire/en Te Ara (1966 Encyclopedia)]
* [http://www.nram.govt.nz/record.php?id=7436&parent=nramindexbyvolume&volume=C NZ Archives listing for Commission of Enquiry papers]