Trailer: Collapse
2mOn February 22, 2011, a devastating earthquake hit Christchurch. Of the 185 people killed, 115 of them were in one building...the CTV building.
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On February 22, 2011, a devastating earthquake shook Christchurch, killing 185 people. One hundred and fifteen of those people were in the CTV building - a structure that should never have been built.
In the 10 years since the disaster, serious flaws have been exposed in the design, construction and inspection of the CTV building. No-one has been held accountable for those errors.
On the 10th anniversary of the earthquake, MARGARET GORDON and MICHAEL WRIGHT look at how a disaster became mired in controversy and why calls for justice endure today.
Episodes
You can listen to the podcast directly from this page, or through your favourite podcast app, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.
Episode 01: The mountain and the cave
40mTopi Emery and Marion Hilbers were among the 149 people in the CTV building when it collapsed. Their families kept vigil at the site for hours, hoping for a miracle.
ListenEpisode 02 available on 13 February
Episode 02: ‘Call me Louis’
44mRescuers tunnel into the rubble and find what was left of a school cafeteria with 22 students trapped, dead and alive.
ListenEpisode 03 available on 14 February
Episode 03: Need help, need help
53mSenior Constable Stuart Martindale gets a tap on the shoulder and is handed a phone number. A trapped survivor is calling him from underneath the rubble.
ListenEpisode 04 available on 15 February
Episode 04: Boom and bust
45mThe CTV building was born in the 1980s construction boom. It had profound design flaws that were flagged at the time. How did it get built?
ListenEpisode 05 available on 16 February
Episode 05: Vagabond
48mThe CTV story descends into controversy and farce: a fake engineer and New Zealand’s biggest homicide investigation.
ListenEpisode 06 available on 17 February
Episode 06: Tragedy, travesty
58mPolice announce the results of their investigation. Will anyone be held accountable over 115 deaths?
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Anatomy of a tragedy
Building levels
Collapse causes
Rescue sectors
Characters
Paul Rodwell
Firefighter. Spent hours in the CTV rubble rescuing survivors.
Stuart Martindale
(Huata Arahanga)
Former police officer. Spoke to Tamara Cvetanova during rescue attempt.
Yukio Minami
Survived eight hours in the rubble of the CTV building.
Alan Reay
Principal of the firm that designed the CTV building.
David Harding
Engineer who designed the CTV building.
Alec Cvetanov
Tried to save his wife, trapped in the CTV rubble.
Graeme Tapper
City council engineer. Concerned with CTV design but signed off on it.
Josh Hilbers
Watched CTV building collapse with mother, Marion Hilbers, inside.
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The 115
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Photos
Pre-quake, the CTV building was a six-level office building on the corner of Madras and Cashel streets in central Christchurch.
Dozens of police, firefighters, medics and specialist search crews in action late on February 22, 2011.
An aerial shot of the site shows how widespread the devastation is.
A group of students from Toyama in Japan were in the building when it collapsed. About half did not survive.
A photo taken by police in the aftermath of the disaster.
Civilians and the first police on the scene during the early stages of the rescue.
By day-break on February 23, urban search and rescue - specialist rescue crews - had taken charge of the operation.
The building that would become CTV during construction in the mid 1980s.
A plaque at the CTV site, which has become a place for tributes to the victims.
The corner of Cashel and Madras streets, where CTV once stood, is now a memorial garden.
An aerial view of the site as it looks in 2021.
A digger pulls down the lift shaft - the only part of the building to remain standing in the quake.
An aerial view of the CTV site after much of the rubble has been cleared.
A helicopter with a monsoon bucket dowses the fire burning deep in the CTV rubble pile.
Credits
credits
Presented and produced by
Michael Wright and Margaret Gordon
Additional reporting, research and creative input
Marc Greenhill
Stuff podcast director
Adam Dudding
Music
Henry Nicol
Sound mix and design
Chris Sinclair
Digital designer
Aaron Wood
Interactive designer
Sungmi Kim
Visual journalists
Alden Williams, Joseph Johnson, Chris Skelton, Rosa Woods and John Kirk-Anderson
Digital editor
John Hartevelt
Commissioning editors
Carol Hirschfeld and Patrick Crewdson
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