GRAPHIC STORY A NARROW ESCAPE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26624, 21 November 1947, Page 4

GRAPHIC STORY

A NARROW ESCAPE

YOUNG WOMAN SURVIVOR

PANIC CREATED BY SMOKE P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 20. One of two young women who survived jumping from the third-storey window during Ballantyne’s fire on Tuesday afternoon this evening told how many of the victims were trapped in the credit and accounts offices. She was Miss Lois Kennedy, aged 20 years, of 4 Swann’s road, Richmond, who was to-day allowed to return to her home from the Christchurch Hospital. Still suffering from the great strain of her she could not be questioned in detail, but her story indicated what happened to a section of the employees. “We had been down to tea in the cafeteria on the first floor, and were returning to work when we saw smoke down the main stairs. People were standing about in the lounge, so we presumed that everything was all right, and returned to the credit office on the second floor,” said Miss Kennedy.

“ Nobody told us there was a serious fire,” she added, making this point several times during the interview. “ Some of the staff had resumed work when we were told to get our coats and leave. We collected our books and put them, with the machines, in the safe.

" Then the lights went out,” Miss Kennedy said. “We saw smoke coming up and some of the girls panicked. We tried to get out into the accounts section, but we

were driven_back by the smoke,

Our own office was" filled with smoke, which confused everyone. It was hard to move. Then we heard things falling in. and flames began to come up through the floor. We heard screams.”

Miss Kennedy said she remembered going to the third storey window and seeing hoses playing round her, but not jumping. , A close friend, Mrs Nancy Gladys Nash, aged 25, of 71 Conway street, Spreydon, was seen at the window with her from the street, and she jumped also and is still in hospital. Mrs Kennedy, who came out of the shop just before the fire, saw her daughter jump and the young woman's finance arrived from his work in time to assist in lifting her from the veranda, from which she was carried unconscious. , ... Asked about exits from the credit office, Miss Kennedy said there were several but the thick smoke coming up around them drove the employees ba The credit office was in the highest part of the building, about the centre of the Colombo street frontage. It was at this end of the building that the fire was seen first and where it raged most fiercely in the early stages.