CELLAR NOT FOUND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22571, 26 February 1948, Page 6

CELLAR NOT FOUND

SEARCH TRACING OF SMOKE INSPECTION DESCRIBED i (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 25. A senior station officer of the Civ' *- church Fire Brigade, Charles Ernest Warner Stevenson, continued tie Brigade’s evidence before the inquiry into Ball:' , '‘"'-ne’s fire this morning. Witness said that on November 13 he was squad officer for the day and in 0 of No. 11 enni-'i ' r *nr the ’"”'m c ‘‘ i Officer Tbomnsen told him that there was a call to R'llffin'"tee's cellar Witness that "v maeb’ne vfi'"*’.-! «n '-is r l-sh-H ■‘reef enc! via Cashel street so as 1 > "n'-'r the three frontages of the Witness said be did not know where -ns. He t-'mw tF?t hi budding wm’e of a light, com'"'t.'A’o nature. >m left *' sta•Vn if rim nof oee'u' to him that it -•--'-I V.O n-..Onn!-.*-l v d"" ""’'OUS. HC ••ould ■-> ‘’--t it .'•o”’-' I-" n bad ’.re risk if o-e net a "end hold. Smoke From Alleyway On po-in-t witness s-vl he did not r- ., i'>i) f-o e'ectp’e le.d ,, ~" '”"'s not "*'>« U« first saw smffie a t the corner ■' G’niembo p"-l LFtffiffid stroetc neai ’’"l'antync’s. The smoke was issir'ne ’rom a right-of-wav but be dtrl not see "nv corning from the first floor His machine was the first there The vp.ebine carried Roberts and Salvny "g'-niri'tors and a supplv of smoke filters On arrival the duty of the first officer on flic scene was to locate and ?x 4 in' , i’ish the fire as soon as possible Asked if there was not a duty to “e an immediate in.sneeP'ui of a ’Mi'ldine in the oii-eumst-"-es witness ru'd iic did not feel that there was as of'er were com*ns*. F T e was ’•elvin-* on senior officers to make an mqnnnfjn n of tiic building and an apnrocich'on of the posiiion on their arrival

Witness said he had inspected the building eight to 10 years ago. ’He thought the inspections had been continued up till about 1930 when with the war scare the E.P.S. system came into being The scheme had nit neen started again mainly because of staff shortages

As the scheme was developed a system came into being for recording whether a building was a bad fire risk, lie d'd not know whether anyone had bad the duty of classifying the reports put in Any report of the inspection of Bailantyne’s subsequent to his should still be there. Risk Not Unusually Great He did not think that at the time the fire risk at Bailantyne's would be any greater than in many other establishments in that line of business. There were several in the city which were ail dangerous risks, but they could not help it owing to the nature of their business. Once on the scene of the fire he ordered a hose to be prepared and went to the alley A civilian said: “It is in the cellar. The cables fused." He mad no further conversation and went up the alley. As far as he knew no one accompanied him Witness said he was trying to locate the entrance to the r°Har be_au.se the man had pointed up the allevwnv. Hhad no preconceived idea of the location of the entrance in the alleyway. Because of the smoke he could only see crffit or 10 f'-ff un it.

After going in 10 to 15 feet he realised that respirators would be needed so he returned to the machine and ordered the man with the delivery to don a Roberts respirator. Witness procured three smoke masks and a lamp and donned one. Fireman Todd aiso put one on.

As he was pulling on the mask he saw Burrows coming to the alley. Witness and a branch man went un the alley. The smoke was very thick and the. visibility was nil. As the lamp was tinabie to penetrate the smoke lie left it to the branch man to feel the right wall while he went up the centre. Both were on their hands and knees. There was no civilian there.

Witness said he explored the whole of the right-of-way Ha had no recollection of coming up ageinst a closed pair of double doors'across the aney. He had not given the branch man instructions to !gck for toe entrance, but if he had come across the door he would have taken it for the entrance. He had an idea that he would find the entrance at the end of the right-of-way i id he contained down uniil he came up against a blank wall. There was no possibility of that barrier being the double gates. Witness said he examined a wooden door at the end, but ie aid not attempt to epen it. He realised that tficie must be some open.ng by wnich the smoke was gettin ; hiln tiie alleyway.