Today in History

1942 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 kms 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 either single rooms or the 20-bed dormitory. The Second World War meant there was a nationwide shortage of nurses; that night there was no nurse on duty. Checks were made on Ward 5 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 occupants were lucky as they were in rooms that did not have locked shutters on the windows. Nothing could be done for the remaining inhabitants 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 itself 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 way in which 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 lives from 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. A new psychiatric hospital was opened at nearby Cherry Farm in 1954.

Image: Seacliff Hospital

1941 New Zealand declares war on Japan

New Zealand's declaration followed the surprise attack on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of Sunday 7 December (8 December New Zealand time).

Japan also attacked the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaya and Thailand. The capture of the key British base at Singapore in February 1942 would leave many New Zealanders feeling defenceless, and fearful of an imminent Japanese invasion.

Image: Vincents of No1 Squadron, Whenuapai, 1941 (NZETC)