Fires in Dunedin in Victorian Times Especially of Business Premises That Students Might Like to Investigate

Fact Sheets Taking a closer look at…. Fires Fires resources include 1. Fatal 19th Century Fires: Dunedin’s Northern Cemetery trail 2. Fatal 19th Century Fires: Southern Cemetery trail 3. Introduction to the set of resources 4. Fact Sheet 1: What happened to Mary Birch? 5. Fact Sheet 2: The Kitchener Family Tragedy 6. Fact Sheet 3: What happened to the O’Brien Family? 7. Fact Sheet 4: The Stokes Family 8. Fact Sheets 5A & 5B: The Bischiskie Family tragedy? 9. Fact Sheet 6: What happened Mary Fahey & Thomas Maloney Port Chalmers Volunteer Fire Brigade th Fatal fires of the 19 Century: A Trail in Dunedin’s Northern Cemetery The Kitchener Family Investigation! Bock 110 Plot 10 Hunt out the gravesites and then find out what really 2 happened to these people! 2 3 1 1 Mary Irvine Birch Block 60 Plot 2 3 The O’Brien family Block 169 Plot 23 M a it la n d S t 151 148 150 147 146 143 17P 142 139 Morgue 16P 138 141 149 136 14P 143C 143B 11P 143D d 140 135 143E R 12P 15P 143A 143F 9AP h 13P t 9AP 22P 134 137 143G 143H 10P 21P u o 20P 131 132 133 S 19P Investigation! 9P 1 8P 5P 18P 6P 13AP Hunt out the gravesites and then find 28P 40P 8P 6P 35P 5P 100A 31P 18AP out what really happened to these 34P 5P 3P 23P 100B 33P 3P 29P 30P 2P 3P 100 129 130 people! 32P 9P 126 26P 27P 127 24P 3P 124 25P 2P 105A 123 38P 37P 103A 2P 103A 108 122 4P 1P 121 1 27P 36P 144 Bischiskie Block 42R Plot13 24P 11 16 107 119 120 145 118 26P 7AP 101 105 106 104 25P 11 103 7P 16 12E 118A 12D 18 1P 12B 12C 24P 108 28 12A 12B 17A 12E 103 108B 17B 12D 109 144 29 12C 145 17 12B 108A 34 110B 115 17B 12A 12B 2 30 116 t 12 S 17A 114 s 31 0X e 149 4 110A c n 102A 109A i 32 110 r C 4A 4B 2A P E 5 102 109A g 33 5B l i n 149A 5C t 3A 3B o 149A 22 n 22A R 7 5J 27 24 3 125 d 6A 4J 21 6 6J 26 7J 2 57R 12J 11J 25 57AR 10J Stokes Block 9P Plot 59 20 21A 23A 66R 40R 58R 8J 9J 23 56R 2J 3J 50R 59R s 48R ce 19 39R 421R 1J in 55R 60R Pr 38R 54R p/ 42R CR illi 69R BR h 3 36R 37R AR 65R P 33R 43R 61R 62R h out 34R 44R 52R 53R p/S 49R hilli Thomas 28R 32R 46R 63R P 29R 31R 47R 3 26R 27R 51R 64R Maloney P 25R 35R h 14R i Block 11R ll 13R 9R 8R 5R 4R ip 30R 1R s Plot 7 19R 15R S R t t S 6R 3R or t 21R 10R 7R n S 23R ve er 12R 2R os alt 20R 18R 16R Gr W 24R 11R 22R 4 4 Mary Fahey Block 25R Plot 7 17R Date printed: 18/11/2003 Southern Cemetery 1:1,200 Copyright Dunedin City Council Introduction The need for lighting, heating and cooking in the 19th Century using open fires to keep warm, kerosene lamps and candles for domestic lighting, and fires and colonial ovens for cooking, caused a number of horrifying tragedies when combined with small wooden and often tightly packed houses. Although the article at left is part of an advertisement, kerosene lamps could be easily knocked over (O’Brien tragedy) or even explode as in the case of the Stokes house fire. People falling asleep (Mrs Mary Birch) or leaving candles unattended that could be blown over, fall or knocked over were frequent. Many severe fires also occurred where there was no loss of life. Brigades were horse drawn and often slow to respond. In the Bischiskie fire the horses initially refused and then struggled to pull the brigade up the steep gradient of Stuart Street. Mr O’Brien, who lost two children in the King Street Fire, needed to run to the Brigade Hall to alert the fire brigade. Telephones were not yet in general use. Fatal fires were more prevalent in these conditions. They took hold quickly and were often total in their destruction. Fact Sheet 1 What happened to Mary Birch? - Northern Cemetery Dunedin This article is BURNT TO DEATH. Evening Post, Volume XIX, Issue 9, 12 January 1880, Page 3 See if you can find an error somewhere in this information? Mary Irvine Birch Block 60 Plot 2 Fact Sheet 2 What happened to the Kitchener family? - Northern Cemetery Dunedin The Kitchener family memorial Block 110 Plot 10 Only the three-step base of this memorial now remains. The memorial would once have had a plain Latin cross surmount. The three steps at the base of the cross represent faith, hope and charity. The inscription is now difficult to reads but is as follows, Henry Kitchener Capt 6th Regt Aged 45 years and his children Susan Mary Aged 11 years Frank Sydney Aged 8 Years Mabel Edith Aged 6 years Margola Gordon Aged 6 months Who Perished by Fire 1882 Also of William Henry Kitchener son of the above th FIRE IN DUNEDIN. Taranaki Herald, Volume Who died 8 August 1895 XXX, Issue 4082, 1 July 1882, Page 2 Aged 25years Fact Sheet 3 What happened to the OʼBrien children? - Northern Cemetery Dunedin Above: A kerosene lamp THE FIRE AT DUNEDIN. INQUEST. Dunedin, This Day. Evening from the 1880s Post, Volume XVIII, Issue 109, 4 November 1879, Page 2 The O’Brien family Block 169 Plot 23 Fact Sheet 4 What happened to the Stokes children? - Southern Cemetery Finding the burial place of the Stokes children in the Southern Cemetery involved some interesting detective work. The children are buried in Block 9P Plot 59 but the plot was re-sold some years after the death of the children and there was a headstone erected on the plot for the family of the second owners. The headstone that is on the plot is now lying face forward so that it cannot be read. Above: A kerosene lamp from the 1880s SHOCKING CASUALTY. Two Children Burned to Death at Dunedin. Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 155, 22 May 1886, Fact Sheet 5A What happened to the Bischiskie children? - Southern Cemetery SHOCKING FIRE in DUNEDIN. Children Burned to Death. Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1504, 23 February 1882, Page 2 The Bischiskie children’s grave can be found in Block 42R Plot 13. Fact Sheet 5B What happened to the Bischiskie children? - Southern Cemetery A poignant grave: Four child victims of House fire In a simple double grave on the edge of the Catholic Section of Dunedin’s Southern Cemetery lie the small bodies of the victims of a disaster in early Dunedin. In these plots, 11 and 12 lie four children, siblings Minnie Bichiski, aged 6 years; Martha Bischiski , aged 4years ; and Francis Bischiski aged 8 years and their cousin Thomas Kreft, aged 13 years. They all died in a fire in their home in Smith St on February 23rd 1882. The house situated in a row of wooden buildings belonging to K.B Cargill, comprised four rooms on two floors. According to Julius Bischiski (a native of Poland) one of the children had raised the alarm, but his efforts-and those of his wife-to save them from their burning bedroom were unsuccessful. The Bischiski’s and their 2½ year old did escape, although not without injury. The bodies of the four children were eventually recovered by two firemen. The cause of the fire was uncertain but it thought to have been ignited by embers left in the kitchen grate. The fire also destroyed two houses on either side of that occupied by the Bischiskis, reflecting of course the tightly packed nature of some of Dunedin’s early housing and the lack of fire walls. According to a report in the Otago Daily Times ( February 22 1882, “The brigade were [sic] late in putting in an appearance , on account of the horses refusing to pull their gear up the incline of Stuart Street” In the aftermath of the fire the family resided with Mrs Gdanitz, Mrs Bischiski’s mother. Thomas Kreft was the son of a Pine Hill dairyman and along with the two eldest Bischjski children had been attending the Christian Brothers School. Story prepared for the Otago Daily Times by the Historic Cemeteries Conservation Trust and published on the 18 June 2005 as part of the regular Stories in Stone series. Fact Sheet 6: What happened to Mary Fahey & Thomas Maloney? Southern Cemetery Dunedin THE FATAL FIRE AT DUNEDIN. Taranaki Herald, 16 October 1888, Page 2 FIRE AT DUNEDIN. Taranaki Herald, 15 October 1888, Page 2 Mary Fahey is buried in Block 25R Plot 11. The grave without a headstone is pictured at left. Thomas Maloney is buried in Block 11R Plot 7. There is a headstone on he grave pictured at right. Is Block1Plot168 Janet Harwood Cemetery Portobello 7A Fact Sheet ’ s familygraveatPortobello Cemetery : What happened to : Whathappened d t R oin n P to ing ar H - Otago Peninsula Otago d R int Po n o Harwood Janet gt rin Ha 2 hip ns ow 2 2 T llo 1 be 2 rto 1 Po 0m 10 1 2 5 5 2 4 5 5 A ? 3 3 3 4 6 7 8 B 1 Inquest Date printed: 14/11/2003 Portobello Cemetery 1:450 Copyright Dunedin City Council Fact Sheet 7B: What happened to Janet Harwood? Portobello Cemetery - Otago Peninsula INQUEST.

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