ESCAPE TO SAFETY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26623, 20 November 1947, Page 6

ESCAPE TO SAFETY

HARROWING EXPERIENCES MANAGERESS’S DISPLAY OF COOLNESS Daily Times Special Service CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 19. “It was just as though a gigantic flame-thrower had suddenly engulfed the interior of the building,” said the forewoman of Ballantyne’s dressmaking department describing how she and her fellow-workers escaped into Cashel street as the flames swept through from the Colombo street side of the building. All the workers in the dressmaking section made their escape, thanks to the coolness of the manageress of the department, but then they had the harrowing experience of watching others of their workmates having to climb down ladders or jump, some of them unavailingly. . The girls in the millinery department above the dressmakers were trapped. Workers in the dressmaking department noticed nothing untoward until the manageress came in and told them to switch off the power, leave their irons, and get out of the building.

Smoke from nearby chimneys had accustomed them to seeing it in the past, and, even though the dressmaking rooms are directly above the seat of the fire, there was no alarming indication of the outbreak. The girls from the workrooms, with the exception of those in the millinery department, all made their way to the lounge. The fire doors were closed behind them, but proved no bar to the flames, which came sweeping through in the wake of the girls. Smoke was seeping like mist through the floor of the lounge, and everywhere the girls turned on the first floor they were driven back by dense clouds of smoke, which obscured all vision. There was no panic, and the girls went down the main stairs to the security of Cashel street just as the flames roared through from the other side of the premises.