A warehouse is usually a building of ample space, filled with commodities of all descriptions packed high and often close together, making them conducive to the spread of fire. In the brief history of the New Zealand Army Ordnance services, the risk of warehouse fires has always been taken seriously. As a small army at the end of an exceptionally long supply chain, the loss of expensive and hard-to-replace stores is something the Army could ill afford, not to mention the loss and replacement of infrastructure. Shortly after the formation of the New Zealand Ordnance Services in 1917, the Dunedin Ordnance Depot experienced a fire which, although destroying some stock, was prevented by the fast response of the Dunedin Fire Brigade from becoming a catastrophic event.

The Dunedin Ordnance Depot started its life in 1907 as a purpose-built Mobilisation Store at 211 St Andrews Street. With a Civilian storekeeper Mr Owen Paul McGuigan, employed under the technical control of the Defence Stores organisation, the store was under the day-to-day control of the Officer Commanding of the Otago and Southland Military District, becoming part of the new Ordnance organisation on its formation in 1917.[1]  Mr McGuigan was granted Honorary rank as a Captain in 1914 and commissioned as a Captain in the New Zealand Army Ordnance Department (NZAOD) in 1917, holding the appointment of Assistant Director of Equipment and Ordnance Stores for the Otago and Southland Military District. This position was responsible for the Territorial Army units, the various army establishments in the Otago and Southland Military District and the providing of Ordnance Stores to troopships.[2] The Dunedin Ordnance Depot is known to have a staff of at least 6 Other Ranks.

At around 5 pm on Monday, the 11th of June 1917, Captain McGuigan conducted a final check of his ordnance store, ensuring that all the fireplaces had been extinguished and satisfied that the building was safe to secure for the night, locked the doors. At approximately 5 am on the morning of the 12 of June, a passing policeman saw nothing suspicious. At 5.15 am, the alarm was raised from the alarm on the corner of St Andrews Street that there was a fire underway on the upper floors of the Defence building.[3]

The Dunedin Fire Brigade consisted of the central fire station and substations at Māori Hill, Roslyn, and Mornington. The Dunedin Brigade had retired its horse-drawn appliances in 1913 and had just recently received three modern Dennis 60 HP motor hose-tenders, each fitted with a telescopic trussed ladder and first-aid pumping outfits. For 1917, it was a well-equipped brigade.[4],[5] As the central station was located less than a Kilometre from the defence buildings, it fell upon Superintendent Napier and the men of the central fire station to respond to the fire alarm.

Promptly arriving at the defence buildings, the responding fire brigade found an active fire emerging from the front portion of the second floor of the Defence Stores. The ferocity of the fire indicated that it had been alight for some time and had a firm grip on the contents. Described as “a very hot and Stubborn little fire”, the blaze proved challenging to overcome, requiring three hose lines and an hour and a half of hard and smart work by the fire brigade to bring the fire under control and extinguish the blaze.[6]

Postfire examinations revealed severe damage to the stock, including,

• Khaki overcoats,
• forage caps,
• saddlery,
• uniform jackets, and other assorted

The damaged stock was confined to items stacked close to the window on the second floor, while stock close to the fireplace located on the rear wall was limited to smoke damage, eliminating embers from the fireplace as the cause. Surprisingly, the damage to the building was superficial except for the roof, which was beyond repair. With a total loss valued at £1237 (NZD 155422.62).[7] The Cause of the blaze was never determined. There was no insurance on the property, with the cost born by the crown with final appropriations for the losses made in 1921.[8]

How the fire affected the work at the Dunedin Ordnance Depot is unknown. Still, it continued to service the Otago and Southand Military districts until 1921, when the South Island military districts amalgamated into the Southern Military Command. To support the new Southern Military Command, a single Ordnance Depot was established at Burnham Camp, combining the Ordnance Depots of Christchurch and Dunedin stores and staff.[9] The Dunedin fire was a narrow escape. With the risk of fire to Ordnance stores well recognised by the Ordnance leadership, fire pickets remained an essential regimental duty for Ordnance Other Ranks in Ordnance Depots for many years.[10] The most severe fire to strike a New Zealand Ordnance Store was the 1944/45 New Year’s Eve fire, which resulted in the loss of £225700 (2017 NZD 18,639,824.86) of stock from No2 Ordnance Depot in Palmerston North.[11] The Palmerston North fire encouraged a review of all New Zealand Ordnance Depots to ensure the robustness of fire prevention measures.[12]

Despite the initial fire in Dunedin in 1917 and the Palmerston North fire in 1944, the spectre of fire remained a constant threat. Fire prevention and precautions remain a continuous component of Ordnance training and procedures until the amalgamation of the RNZAOC into the RNZALR in 1996. Because of such diligence, there were few fire-related incidents in New Zealand Ordnance Depots.

Copyright © Robert McKie 2018

Notes

[1] Joseph S. Bolton, A History of the Royal New Zealand Army Ordnance Corps (Wellington: RNZAOC, 1992), 53.

[2] “Annals from a Forgotten Ordnance Depot (Author Unknown),” https://rnzaoc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/no-2-72.pdf.

[3] “Fire at Dunedin Defence Store,” Evening Star, Issue 16448, 12 June 1917, 4.

[4] “H-06a Fire Brigades of the Dominion (Report on the) by the Inspector of Fire Brigades for the Year Ended 30 June 1917,” AJHR (1917): 4.

[5] Shawn McAvinue, “Party Time for Old Dennis Fire Engines,” Otago Daily Times, 28 March 2016.

[6] “Fire at Dunedin Defence Store,” 4.

[7] “Appropriation Act,” General Assembly of New Zealand (1920): 29.

[8] Ibid.

[9] John J. Storey and J. Halket Millar, March Past: A Review of the First Fifty Years of Burnham Camp (Christchurch, N.Z.: Pegasus Press, 1973, 1974 printing, 1973), Non-fiction, 127.

[10] “Ordnance Corps Circulars 1928-1940 Ad1 1235 /256/10/4,” Defence Archives, Archives New Zealand (1928).

[11] “Fire in Army Stores,” Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24524, 24 March 1945.

[12] “Army Stores in Christchurch Fire Protection Report,” Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24515, 14 March 1945.