Historic home suffers only damage for town in shake

A collapsed chimney at a historic home in Oamaru is the only sign of earthquake damage in the town.

The chimney tore through the roof of the 107-year-old St Kevin's College principal's residence, Redcastle, during the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that rocked Canterbury at 4.35am on Saturday.

Four 50kg bricks sitting atop the chimney crashed to the ground, taking out portions of the tiled ceiling in their path.

Debris rained into the bedroom of 10-year-old Chris Olsen.

School principal Paul Olsen said builders had been repairing the site this week.

"The damage that's having to be corrected meant that some of the building has had some of the ceiling taken off and some of the tiles."

Mr Olsen's wife, Sandra, had a narrow escape during the earthquake as she fled her bedroom. "A deer head at the top of the stairs fell and narrowly missed her."

He noted that, other than Redcastle, there was "very little" damage to Oamaru.

Mr Olsen said there were some students with "links" to Christchurch but none had as yet headed north to the affected area. "People think it's better down here." Sandra said it had been a "pretty scary" experience.

Her son, Chris, woke up to debris crashing to the floor. His parents told him to stay in bed where he would be protected by the steel frame of his bunk-bed.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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