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419:, who based the book on detailed research and interviews with survivors. Some showrooms on the ground floor were evacuated by sales employees taking their own initiative, but staff in some of the other showrooms on the ground floor were ordered by management to 'carry on' or 'stand by'. As soon as things got hot for them, they left on their own behest. Staff in other areas of the building complex were not even made aware of the fire, as 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 did not realise at once that there were still people on the upper floors of the building complex.
450:, erupting across the conjoined first-floors of the Congreve's, Goodman's, and Pratt's buildings. After flashover the first floor was almost instantly consumed by a wall of flame. Over time superheated gas and fire began working into the floors above. Workers on the multiple top floor attempted to denote their location to firefighters by banging at windows before being killed by heat, fire or smoke. However, the fire-brigade ladders were obstructed from reaching the top floor by the store's rigid verandahs.
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they saw smoke coming out of an enclosed alleyway. They were met by joint managing director Roger
Ballantyne, 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
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At the time of the fire, Ballantynes employed 458 people. Many of these workers worked on the upper floors in various back-office departments. The company claimed after the fire that around 250 to 300 customers were inside the building when smoke was first seen coming from a cellar, many of whom were
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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
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pm, though the phone operator simply stated that she was told to inform them there was a cellar fire at
Ballantynes. When the first fire appliance arrived about two minutes later at the Lichfield Street entrance, the firefighters saw no sign of fire there. They then moved onto Colombo Street, where
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The fire started in the basement of the furniture department, which was located at the 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
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A commission later determined that the fire response had been inadequate, and the building had not met fire regulations, though it had passed its last inspection four years earlier. The commission noted that the 30 minutes between the first call to the fire brigade and the point of flashover would
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pm on
Tuesday 18 November 1947, an employee told a colleague that smoke was coming up the stairs from a stairwell, and asked them to call the fire brigade. The staff had no access to a formal fire evacuation plan. Staff discovering the fire informed their floor manager about their own initiative.
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Two credit department employees jumped together from a top-floor window of Pratt's
Building on the corner of Colombo and Cashel Streets. They landed, injured but alive, on a slate verandah and were rescued by members of the public using a ladder and taken to hospital. Violet Cody, another credit
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and another 21 m in
Lichfield Street. This prime corner site covered approximately an acre, which contained seven conjoined buildings - six of which had three or more hardwood floors - that were interconnected on multiple levels by large passageways between the buildings to allow staff and
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façade, there were issues in the interior. The store's interior partitions had untreated soft wood-fibre linings that had been permitted by the
Christchurch City Council contrary to its own bylaws. Due to the quantity of clothes made on the premises, the buildings were classified as factory
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It has been noted that office employees were not evacuated as the policy required that insured equipment be stored away in a fireproof strong room first. These consisted of 25 bins, two typewriters, several adding machines and a number of boxes of records. These survived the fire.
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buildings, which helped them to pass a Labour
Department inspection in 1943. Two of the buildings had been constructed before fire escapes became a mandatory requirement, and the Fire Brigade had not directed the owners to install them despite a 1930 bylaw requiring it to do so.
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and going through various of owners and 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 the company formed as J. Ballantyne & Co. in 1920.
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worker, leapt from another window in Pratt's Building, whereupon she landed on another slate verandah. She then slewed upside down and then fell head first to the pavement in Cashel Street. She and her unborn child later died in the hospital.
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After the fire, Ballantynes continued to trade from its undamaged building on Lichfield Street. The fire-damaged buildings were demolished and the main Ballantynes store was rebuilt on the corner of Colombo Street and Cashel Street.
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Someone contacted the phone operator and stated that the fire brigade was called. The sequence of delays, errors, and fatal mistakes made by management during the next 25 minutes have been portrayed most memorably in the novel
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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.
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By the time of the fire, the showrooms, fitting rooms, art gallery and sumptuous tearooms catered to the elite of Canterbury. The business was owned and managed by two brothers of the Ballantyne family.
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pm. The firefighter making the call had to first push through 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.
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Kenneth Ballantyne had found himself trapped. Along with some of the women from the credit department and in spite of the growing signs of disaster, he had kept the staff working until about 3:55
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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
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could not be excluded by the commission of enquiry. The latter was considered equally unlikely as Keith Smith, the employee who was last working in the cellar, had left at about 3:30
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plan and evacuation was left to the initiative of individual department heads. Many staff only knew the layout of their own workrooms and were unaware of alternative egress routes.
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pm. At this point he climbed out onto a window ledge as the fire engulfed the floor behind him and was the last person to be rescued by firefighters from Pratt's Building at 4:10
506:, the largest funeral in Christchurch’s history. The Ballantyne Memorial Rose Garden was built at Ruru Lawn Cemetery. The pergola that is part of the memorial collapsed in the
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pm, where they found a number of bodies near the exits and others hanging from beams. None of the victims were identifiable apart from Violet Cody. The fire was put out by 8
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pm for his afternoon tea break. He had gone across the street to smoke a cigarette with a friend, since Ballantynes had a strict no-smoking policy on its premises.
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not inside the showrooms but inside the elaborate neoclassical tearooms on an upper floor, having afternoon tea while listening to a string trio.
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for all of New Zealand. Urgent changes were recommended for building regulations and fire safety requirements to prevent similar disasters.
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The centre of the complex began to collapse soon after. Firefighters and Police were able to gain entry to the ground floor about 6
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The Ballantynes business expanded until, by 1947, it occupied 80 m of street front in Cashel Street, 50 m in
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320:, New Zealand, resulting in the death of 41 people. It remains the deadliest fire in New Zealand's history.
832:"Ballantynes department store inferno survivor reveals failures and omissions in NZ's worst fire tragedy"
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bell-ringers cancelled their wedding peals that were to be recorded and later broadcast on the radio.
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566:"41 die in Ballantyne's fire | NZHistory, New Zealand history online"
748:"Ballantynes' fire – Report of the Royal Commission: Staff Response"
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Funeral for the victims of the Ballantynes Department Store fire
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The first telephone call to the fire brigade was logged at 3:46
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690:. Wellington, New Zealand: Grantham House. pp. 103–114.
715:"Ballantynes' fire – Report of the Royal Commission Summary"
892:"NZ Archives listing for Commission of Enquiry papers"
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Ballantyne Memorial Rose Garden at Ruru Lawn Cemetery
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103:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
312:On Tuesday, 18 November 1947, a fire engulfed the
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688:New Zealand Tragedies: Fires & Firefighting
920:"Ablaze: TV Movie about the Ballantynes fire"
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634:"Fires and fire services—Fires in the 1940s"
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389:Ballantynes Fire as seen from the tower of
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66:Learn how and when to remove these messages
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236:Learn how and when to remove this message
218:Learn how and when to remove this message
163:Learn how and when to remove this message
639:Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
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608:from the original on 14 September 2016
598:"Ballantynes' fire – 18 November 1947"
473:pm. Forty-one of his staff perished.
27:1947 fire in Christchurch, New Zealand
339:residence in 1854. After being named
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101:adding citations to reliable sources
1023:November 1947 events in New Zealand
359:While its exterior was a dignified
758:from the original on 23 April 2019
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190:tone or style may not reflect the
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867:"Ballantyne Memorial Rose Garden"
632:Swarbrick, Nancy (13 July 2012).
47:This article has multiple issues.
200:guide to writing better articles
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260:Firefighters battling the blaze
88:needs additional citations for
55:or discuss these issues on the
925:Afternoons with Jesse Mulligan
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1038:1947 disasters in New Zealand
802:Eldred-Grigg, Stevan (1993).
540:A dramatisation of the fire,
493:wedding of Princess Elizabeth
491:Planned celebrations for the
778:"41 die in Ballantynes fire"
665:Ballantynes Department Store
508:2011 Christchurch earthquake
316:department store in central
752:Christchurch City Libraries
719:Christchurch City Libraries
602:Christchurch City Libraries
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415:by historian and novelist
269:18 November 1947
871:Christchurch City Council
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981:Archives New Zealand on
979:Christchurch Fire (1947)
958:43.533414°S 172.636220°E
908:(subscription required)
510:but was later rebuilt.
194:used on Knowledge (XXG)
1028:Department store fires
1013:1940s fires in Oceania
963:-43.533414; 172.636220
686:McLean, Gavin (1992).
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1003:1940s in Christchurch
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998:Fires in New Zealand
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