Seacliff Lunatic Asylum Fire, New Zealand 1942
Seacliff Asylum was built near the end of the 19th century and seemed to have been cursed for most of its existence, plagued with faulty construction and landslides which undermined the building. Ward 5 was a wooden addition to the main building, added several years after completion. Seacliff was in an isolated location, about twenty miles north of Dunedin, and was at the time of its completion the largest building in New Zealand. Because of its isolation it maintained its own fire department, which was small since the building was mainly of stone and masonry.
Ward 5 was for the housing of female patients and consisted of both private rooms and a dormitory of twenty beds. The ward was built with windows, most of which were kept shuttered from the outside at night. The others were barred. The ward was isolated from the rest of the hospital by locking its doors at night. During the Second World War New Zealand, which was then part of the British Empire, was under conscription which included nurses, and shortages of medical personnel for civilian facilities were common.
On December 8, 1942, a fire was reported in Ward 5 by a male attendant, and Seacliff’s firefighters responded quickly. Sufficient water was available but the wooden structure was engulfed in flames rapidly, with firefighters unable to bring it in check before the entire addition was destroyed. Firefighters were able to help two women escape the flames when it was discovered that the shutters over the windows to their rooms were unlocked.
The remaining 37 women (or 39, reports vary) were killed in the fire, unable to escape either into the main hospital or the outside. There were no fire escapes, fire doors, or critically a sprinkler system which would have helped suppress the flames.
What caused the fire which led to the complete destruction of the ward was never determined with certainty, some blamed it on smoking, some suggested arson, and some suggested it was from an electrical failure created by the building’s settling. The fire led to changes in fire codes for future institutional buildings, but not to existing institutions.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
Ohio Penitentiary Fire, Ohio History Central
CNN – More Than 300 Killed in Honduras Prison Fire, February 16, 2012
The Mansfield News December 27, 1923
The Cedar Rapids Gazette January 7, 1950
Associated Press – 145 Dead in Nigerian Plane Crash, May 5, 2002
London’s Forgotten Disasters, The Londonist
Deadly Fire at Seacliff Mental Hospital. New Zealand History