FIREMEN’S TASK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26622, 19 November 1947, Page 4

FIREMEN’S TASK

SPREADING PREVENTED CROWD PRESENTS DIFFICULTIES P.A. CHRISTCHURCH. Nov. 18. From the corner of Cashel an? Colombo streets it was possible to watch all the efforts to prevent the fire spreading. By 4 o’clock a huge mushroom-shaped pall of smoke, rising hundreds of feet, had attracted thousands of people into neighbouring streets, and business was brought to a standstill in shops and offices within two blocks of the fire. At this stage the crowds were surging down Cashel and Colombo streets to within 100 feet of the corner, but the heat alone was sufficient to drive them back halfway down the block. Those behind soon pushed them forward again until reinforcements of police arrived. By 4.15 the Colombo street side of the building was a blazing inferno, and the flames were leaping at least 100 feet above the building. The firemen playing hoses on that side worked in terrific heat, and received their only relief from men who secured armfuls of soft drinks from neighbouring shops and held the bottles to their lips. Gratitude was expressed in earnest shouts. The eastern side of Cashel street was a maze of hoses, hydrants as far round as High street being tapped. The firemen. concentrating six leads on to the southern end of the building, did a great job in preventing the fire from spreading in that direction. For nearly an hour it seemed that little headway was being made, but towards 5 o’clock the flames at that end began to subside, and the engine with the high extension ladder withdrew to another part.

The road of the flames and the hiss of water was punctuated only by the crash of falling Iron and girders and explosive sounds as large plate glass windows cracked or caved in.

Cameramen of the National Film Unit who had visited Christchurch for the South Island championship show were still in the city, and they took many reels of motion pictures of the fire. At its height, people crowded vantage points all over the city. There were scores on the verandas of shops nearby and the rooftops of buildings further out also carried many people. The heat of the fire was felt nearly half a mile away, where people watched from the upper . storeys of buildings. Although generally the public stood well back from the fire, a hose had to be turned on the crowd at the corner of Cashel and Colombo streets to drive them back. A hose was also used to dispose of an unduly large crowd which had gathered on the veranda of a shop opposite Beath’s corner. The collapse of the veranda would have added to the problems. It was a hushed crowd which waited behind the ropes for confirmation of the fears that tragedy had stalked with the fire as rumours trickled through of a mounting death roll. \