NEGLECT ALLEGED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26781, 26 May 1948, Page 6

NEGLECT ALLEGED

STAFF SAFETY CHARGE AT FIRE INQUIRY P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, May 25. Evidence to the Royal Commission inquiring into Ballantyne’s fire on November 18 was given to-day by several employees of thei firm and by two persons who had been shopping inside the building. All the witnesses were called by Mr B. A. Barrer, who appears for three trade unions. Mr Barrer said he was acting for some 20 estates of persons killed in the fire and for four women employees who were injured in it. A second responsibility was to deal with the safety or otherwise of buildings in Christchurch and working conditions in them. “ We say that the management of Ballantyne’s l failed in five specific matters to discharge its onus to safeguard its employees,” said Mr Barrer. “ It failed to call the fire brigade with reasonable promptitqdc. It failed to have any proper organisation or to take. any reasonable steps to evacuate the staff and public when an emer- . gency became apparent. Thirdly, we submit that if failed to provide its employees l with reasonably safe premises in which to work. A fourth point is that the management failed to provide a satisfactory fire alarm system or warning device. The fifth, which relates to the Factories Act, is that we say that parts of Baliantyne’s were a factory within the meaning of the Act and that the management failed to provide a fire escape adjacent to the factory as required by the Act.” The first witness to-day was John Richard Templin, consulting electrical engineer, who was called by Mr T. A. Gresson, counsel for J. Ballantyne and Co., Ltd. Templin said that at the time of the fire the cable supplying Ballantyne’s building was not in accordance with the Governments regulations. Defects in it should have been apparent on inspection. Substantial defects were failure to earth the lead sheath and armouring of the cable.

If fault current escaped into the armouring a fire hazard or a hazard to life could have occurred. There was evidence of ’the escape of fault current behind the fuse panel, and. assuming such a fault, there was nothing to prevent the passage of current along the armouring. His inclination would have been to run the power cable along the outside of the building rather than take it through the basement. Lorna Ethel Mott, a married woman who was employed in the shirt workroom on the second floor of Pratts building, said that when she heard the fire engines she looked at the clock which showed 12 minutes to 4. ” I went upstairs and looked down the fire escape,” she said. ‘‘About six feet down there was a heavy grey-brown smoke. I heard a man say, ' Give us a hand with this girl.’ That made me think that it was our building which was on fire, so I ran back and told the girls. When I went to go down the mercery stairs I saw Mr Hudson at the top of the stairs and asked him if I could get down. He said ‘Yes,’ but sounded as though he did not know whether to say Yes or No for the best. I followed him down the stairs, but started to cough and choke with smoke, so I ran back. I told the gilds about the smoke on the stairs and then went out through the tailoring department and cafeteria. I saw no flames until I was outside the building.” Kathleen Lanauze, also of the shirt workroom, said that after Mrs Mott had reported that there was a fire Mr Hamel went to investigate. When he returned he said it was only a minor fire in the furnishing department and that it was under control. He went out again and returned to order the girls out. Witness tried to go down the mercery stairway, but she was hit in the face by the heat and smoke. She could see no one but heard a man say; ‘Don’t come down this way, girls.’ Mrs Elsie Smith, of Cheviot, who was shopping in Christchurch on the day of the fire, said she saw a fire engine go to Ballantyne's. She looked at two clocks, both of which showed the time to be 3.58 p.m. She walked up to Ballantyne’s and went in to collect a parcel she had bought in the morning. Shopping was continuing, and she saw no attempts made to order evacuation. She went to the women’s shoe department, where there was a great deal of smoke. The commission adjourned until tomorrow.