On this day in 1947 occurred the worst fire in New Zealand's history.

At 3:30 in the afternoon, with five weeks until Christmas, the Christchurch department store Ballantyne's was full. In the acre-wide store were 250 customers and more than 300 employees, including salespeople, the dressmaking department and the office staff.

When a salesman was informed of smoke rising from the basement, he told a co-worker to call the fire brigade and to notify the owners in the upstairs offices.

It's not clear if the original call to the fire brigade was made, but when firefighters hadn't arrived 15 minutes later, another call was placed and the customers and retail staff on the ground floor left the building.

When the firefighters finally arrived, three matters hindered their efforts:

1. The firefighters believed it was "just" a basement fire and were not equipped with proper ladders;
2. The brigade was under-staffed and their two most senior officers were not on duty; and
3. The firefighters were unaware that people still remained on the upper floors of the building.

It was then that the center of the department store exploded in flames. And it was then that employees on the second and third floors slowly started to realize the seriousness of the situation. The fire officer in charge ordered more help, but the phone lines were overloaded and the call delayed.

During the ten minutes that firefighters sought out the source of the fire, some department heads decided to evacuate their staff (although some decided to first turn off the office equipment). The supervisor of the millinery department led eight workers to the fire escape. But only two people survived the walk; seven workers collapsed on the way from smoke inhalation and died.

Those from the other departments who did make it to the fire escapes were driven back by smoke and heat, as were the firefighters who were trying to place ladders against the top story windows where people were trapped.

The fire quickly swept through the building and beyond, with flames reaching more than 100 feet high. Within 20 minutes, the 200 firefighters and all the equipment at the brigade's disposal were ineffective.

By 6pm, firefighters, police and volunteers entered the gutted building. What they faced was grim. It would take four days to recover the unidentifiable bodies. The 41 victims, all employees, were buried in a common grave.

An official inquiry into the disaster began two months later. It found:

• That although it had passed inspection four years earlier, the building's rambling structure and wooden match lining did not meet city building regulations; and
• The department store's management had failed to properly address the risk of fire, with staff unaware of what to do in the event of fire. There were no sprinklers, no emergency alarms available in the building and no way to automatically contact the fire brigade.

But the inquiry's findings were harshest on the fire brigade's failure to recognize the seriousness of the situation and take appropriate steps. According to one report, "Attempts made to rescue people trapped in the building suffered from lack of competent leadership."

The Ballantyne fire led to an overhaul of fire prevention and firefighting throughout New Zealand.

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