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Story: Fires and fire services

After the Seacliff fire

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After the Seacliff fire

The charred remains of ward 5 at Seacliff Hospital, soon after the disastrous fire of 8 December 1942. All but two of the ward’s 39 occupants died in the inferno that engulfed the wooden structure. They were unable to escape because the windows and doors were locked and shuttered.

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New Zealand Herald

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How to cite this page

Nancy Swarbrick, Fires and fire services – Fires in the 1940s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/21872/after-the-seacliff-fire (accessed 25 June 2026).

Story by Nancy Swarbrick, published 10 March 2010.