Remembering when Farmers burnt

Firefighters tackle the 1969 Farmers Co-operative department store fire in Oamaru. Photo supplied.
Firefighters tackle the 1969 Farmers Co-operative department store fire in Oamaru. Photo supplied.

The efforts of about a dozen Oamaru volunteer firefighters sent to tackle the biggest blaze of their lives, with no extending ladders, no breathing equipment and no back-up, in the 1960s, is part of a new exhibition at the North Otago Museum.

The circumstances surrounding the Farmers Co-operative store fire on November, 15, 1969, were a perfect recipe for disaster - a hot, windy summer's day, the store had no fire alarm and no sprinklers, the Oamaru volunteer firefighters had very little equipment to fight a three-storey blaze and the nearest fire hydrant was rusty.

Former firefighters Stan Rusbatch and Doug Taylor remember it all. Mr Taylor especially remembers the wind.

''It was a Saturday, about midday, it was a summer's day with a stinking nor'wester blowing and we got the call.

''We went up there and the place was going lickety-split right at the front of the building. And with the stinker nor'westerly wind blowing, it was perfect for it to blow right through the building.

''Of course everything in there was made to burn, Manchester, hardware, paint, clothes. It went very quick.''

The fire trucks had no modern extending ladders, and because breathing apparatus ''was not really in vogue'' in the '60s, firefighters had no protective equipment.

''Today, it would have been totally different. Today, they would never run a hose straight from a hydrant like we did, and uniforms are totally different altogether.''

He added that bystanders rushed to help the firefighters at the blaze, by manning the old-style fire hydrant that was needed to pump water through the hose, but to no avail.

''They pulled on it so hard that they broke the coupling at the stand-pipe, and there was a great gush of water came out of there of course. But they had been there so long, they were pretty rusty, so it didn't take much to mess them up.''

Fortunately, no-one was hurt in the Saturday blaze. During the working week, the store was staffed by 79 people.

Mr Taylor joined the Fire Brigade in 1958 and served for 37 years in Oamaru and Christchurch, but the Farmers fire was the biggest he had witnessed during his career.

''It was a big day, no question. We only had the two trucks whereas today you would have a dozen trucks at a fire like that from all over the place.

''Unfortunately, in those days we didn't have the Fire Service Commission. It was run by the local fire boards and they didn't call for help and they really should have.''

Mr Taylor said the fire left the building gutted, with just the walls intact.

''One of the things I recall about it most vividly is that two or three days after the fire, they demolished the place and they got a demolition team down from Christchurch and they honestly thought they would give the Oamaru stone one bang and the whole wall would fall down, but the ball just hit the wall and bounced back again, nothing moved.

''That building had to be taken apart stone by stone.

''All that was left, apart from the outside walls, was a safe that was still standing, and actually we had a call back there a couple of days later, because as soon as they opened up the door of the safe, it ignited it was so hot.''

Mr Rusbatch said the smoke from the fire had been visible from the Waitaki bridge, and ash from the corrugated iron roof carried as far as Thousand Acre Rd, about 4km away.

''We turned the corner and all you could see was a ball of flame on the ground - it was quite frightening. Unfortunately, the building was designed over many, many years and was not brought up to the right building codes, so there was no separation in the roof sections.

''The amount of water we were pouring into it was just turning into steam, it howled and made an awful noise.

''There was nothing we could do but contain it.''

Oamaru had a history of large destructive fires in the 19th century, but the Farmers fire ''just about matched anything'', he said.

The museum exhibition, which tells the stories of North Otago fires including the fatal Queens Hotel fire of 1880, runs every day until January 31.

andrew.ashton@odt.co.nz

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