Witness At Fire Inquiry Tells Of “Terrific Wall Of Smoke”

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 February 1948, Page 7

Witness At Fire Inquiry Tells Of “Terrific Wall Of Smoke”

(P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. When the Commission of Inquiry into Ballantyne’s fire resumed this morning, Walter Shaw Gilchrist, a shipping clerk, who worked in the accountancy office, said when led by Mr G. G. G. Watson for the Crown that someone asked him to get Miss Hamilton from the exchange. He went across and he guided her down to the credit office. He left her there. Gilchrist said that heavy black smoke prevented him from seeing the stairs up which he intended to return upstairs.

Witness said he immediately realised the seriousness of the fire. Having rushed back to the staff desk, he told the staff to get out. He then locked the strongroom. With Roger Ballantyne and Crawford he went up to the main tearooms, where they brought the hose into action. Having seen the flames in the roof he told the others it was time they left and they did so. To Mr B. A. Barrer (for the Clothing Trade Union), Gilchrist said it did not occur to him that the credit office girls might be in danger. “In A Safe Place” Re-examined by Mr Watson, he said that when he had taken Miss Hamilton to the credit office he considered she was in a safe place. Clarence Gore Crawford, display manager, said the display studio was on the third floor of. Goodwin’s building with a staff of nine. He was working in a window when he heard the engine and, when a man came to him with a message, he asked where the fire was and was told It was in the furnishing department. He realised that his girls were on the top of that building. He could not get up the elevator or stairs. He stopped Appleyard and said: “How can I get up to my girls?” Appleyard indicated a route, but he remembered he could get up through the credit office. He found two of the girls, Misses Ward and Chailie, •standing in the credit office with Hudson. He noticed Miss Marshall was missing and Miss Ward said she thought she had gone downstairs. That did not satisfy him.

He crossed to Goodwin's building, but when he opened the door he was met by a terrific wall of smoke. Choked and blinded by smoke, he had to return to the credit office. He had Miss Ward tie a handkerchief over his face and he went back. Visibility was absolutely nil. “I yelled several times, ‘anybody there,’ and waited till I could stay no longer,” he continued. “I returnee, and said to Mr Hudson, ‘they must all be out, I can’t get any answer. Mrs Crew “Frantic Crawford said he met Mrs Crew and he would' never forget that, because she was so frantic. She grabbed his arm and asked him if he had seen her girls, whom she had trained. He never got to the display room, which was beside the millinery room. When he was going down the stairs someone asked him about the hairdressing girls and he turned and went up again through the smoke. He I could see figures moving about. He [shouted to them and they ran to him, [and then they ran ahead of him down I the main staircase. He went back up I again to cross the display area when a sheet of flame shot out from an opening beside the cloak counter to- . wards the executive offices. Lie turned I and ran down the main stairway. He [had a hurried look in the millinery room and mantle department' to see if anyone was there and told the manager (Novell) that there was no one there then. There came a colossal crash. Novell told him to get out. Mr M. C. G. Penlington (for the Fire Board), he said it did not occur to him to go down the escape and get the brigade. At that stage the whole of the credit room staff could have got out. It did not occur to him

that the credit office might be in danger. It was separated by two brick Avails on the alleyway. Conflict In Evidence Mr Watson then said that there had been a sharp conflict in the evidence yesterday between two witnesses regarding the evacuation of the shirtroom, and he proposed to call Charles Ernest Dutch ie to resolve that conflict. Dutchie said he was a presser in the shirtroom, of which Hamel was in charge. Some girls had left the room, but they returned, saying that they could not get down the stairs for the heat and smoke. They returned 'and the other girls got up and got their coats and hats.

Hamel went away to investigate the position. When he came back he ordered everyone to leave the premises, When, he gave the order, everyone went including Mrs Nicholls. Mrs Nicholls came back to get her cat’s meat. Witness was still in the shirtroom and Hamel was holding the door open. Mrs Nicholls got her meat and left, following the other members of the staff. Witness said he turned off his iron and he and Hamel followed the rest. They caught up with Mrs Nicholls at the top of the tea-room stairway. He helped her down and he found that Hamel had got out into Cashel street before them. Hamel had turned round and said: “Are you all right, Charlie?” Hamel had probably passed him in the confusion on the stairs. Hamel and himself were the last to leave the room.

“Did His Duty” To Mr Thomas, he said that Hamel had done his duty by his staff.