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NZ events (Canterbury earthquake (185 deaths; 1,500–2,000 injuries, 164…
NZ events
Canterbury earthquake
185 deaths; 1,500–2,000 injuries, 164 serious
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In the ten minutes after it hit, there were 10 aftershocks of magnitude 4 or more.
As had happened after the 4 September 2010 quake, there was a lot of liquefaction. Liquefaction happens when underground water in the soil comes to the surface. Thick muddy slush spreads everywhere, causing buildings and other structures to sink into the ground. Many roads, footpaths, schools and houses were flooded with silt.
At 10.21 p.m. on Christmas Eve 1953 the Wellington–Auckland night express plunged into the flooded Whangaehu River at Tangiwai, 10 km west of Waiōuru in the central North Island. Of the 285 passengers and crew on board, 151 died in New Zealand’s worst railway accident.
Identifying victims is a major task following any mass tragedy. A number of circumstances made this process particularly difficult at Tangiwai. Summer heat and a lack of refrigerated facilities meant that the initial identification had to be carried out as quickly as possible, and in some cases was inaccurate. Some of those killed were recent arrivals to New Zealand who had no relatives or local medical or dental records to help identify them.
Seventeen-year-old Barbara Mahy and her younger brother John had first-class tickets but could only find seats in a second-class carriage. After leaving Waiōuru the guard moved them to the last first-class carriage, at the rear of the train. Almost all the occupants of their original carriage were killed. Christine Cole Catley and her three small children were booked to travel second-class that evening but due to a change of plans travelled a day earlier. For the rest of her life she wondered about ‘the people who considered themselves lucky’ to get those tickets at the last moment.
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Ballantynes fire
On 18 November 1947, a fire engulfed Ballantynes department store in central Christchurch, New Zealand. 41 people died in the blaze; 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
In 1947 more than 300 people were employed in the department store of J. Ballantyne & Co, situated on the corner of Colombo Street and Cashel Street in the centre of Christchurch. Most of the upper floors were staff work areas
, including the dress-making department, and the credit and accounting department.
At 3:31pm on 18 November, 1947, one of the salesmen employed in the store was told by a woman employee that smoke was coming up the stairs. The smoke was coming from the cellar of Congreve’s Building which was beneath the furnishing department,
but there were no flames and no sound of burning. He told the woman to call the fire brigade and tell the owners.
When some minutes later the fire brigade had still not arrived, the salesman began to get concerned.
He worked with other members of the staff to place fire extinguishers at the bottom of the stairs.
Upstairs the owners, Kenneth and Roger Ballantyne, had been told about the fire, but there was some uncertainty whether the call to the fire brigade had been made.
Another call was made to be certain. This call was received at the fire station at 3:46pm
Outcomes
The store itself was made up of seven smaller buildings linked together, and was four storeys high in some places. Some parts of the building had no access to fire escapes.
Around the outside of the building was a veranda which made it difficult for the fire fighters to put up their ladders.
At first the firefighters had only shorter ladders which could not reach the windows on the upper floors.
This delayed the attempt to rescue the trapped workers.
The rambling nature of the building meant that once
started a fire could travel quickly through the store. There were no fire sprinklers, and the materials used to line parts of the building were wooden match lining and pinex, both very flammable.
A civic funeral service was held in the Anglican Cathedral on 23 November, followed by a mass burial.
It was the largest funeral in Christchurch’s history
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