WAS IN BUILDING

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 56, Issue 32938, 17 December 1947, Page 4

WAS IN BUILDING

FIRE AT BALLANTYNE’S

THAMES WOMAN’S EXPERIENCE

To have sat having afternoon tea for a quarter of an hour in the blazing Ballantyne’s building in Christchurch was the experience of Mrs E. M. Hetherington, of Thornton’s Bay, Thames Coast. Mrs Hetherington, with friends, was having afternoon tea in the tearooms on the first floor of the building when the fire broke out. The few people, there heard no sound of fire alarms—apparently the electricity of the alarm system had been cut off. The fire-had been raging for a quarter of an hour when they were told to leave quickly. Unable to get to the main doors in Colombo street, because the lounge and staircase were in flames, they went down the back stairs to Cashel street. There was no panic. Many of the firm’s office staff were able to leave the same way. “ I have never seen a city so sad,” Mrs Hetherington commented recently, shortly after her return from the south. “It was an awful experience.” '