Fire at Seacliff Mental Hospital kills 37

The fire that swept through Ward 5 of the Seacliff Mental Hospital killed 37 female patients. Most of the windows in the ward were locked and could only be opened by a key from inside.

The Seacliff Lunatic Asylum, 28 km north of Dunedin, opened in 1884. With accommodation for 500 patients and 50 staff, it was at the time the largest public building in New Zealand. Ward 5 was part of a two-storeyed wooden building that had been added to the original stone building at the end of the 19th century.

That fateful evening Ward 5 held 39 women patients who had been locked into single rooms or the 20-bed dormitory. During the Second World War there was a nationwide shortage of nurses; that night there was no nurse on duty, although Ward 5 was checked by staff from other wards every hour. Around 9.45 p.m. a male attendant noticed the fire and raised the alarm. He then ran to the small hospital fire station and dragged the fire hoses and reels to a fire hydrant near Ward 5.

Two women were lucky enough to be in rooms that did not have locked shutters on the windows. Nothing could be done for the remaining inmates of Ward 5. The fire was too fierce and within an hour the building had been reduced to ashes.

A commission of inquiry followed. While the cause of the fire was never determined, the wooden building housing Ward 5 was roundly condemned. There was little hope of preventing fire spreading once it had broken out. While newer parts of Seacliff had been fitted with automatic fire alarms, in Ward 5 the alarm could only be raised by unlocking a cabinet and pushing a button.

The fact that the windows were shuttered and locked from the inside at night was also criticised, although the efforts of the hospital fire brigade in saving two people in Ward 5 and successfully evacuating hundreds of others from the hospital were praised. The commission recommended the installation of sprinkler systems in all mental hospitals.

The Seacliff Mental Hospital fire was the worst in New Zealand until the Ballantynes department store blaze in 1947. Parts of Seacliff remained open, but a new psychiatric hospital was opened at nearby Cherry Farm in 1954.

Image: Seacliff Hospital