It’s been a decade since New Zealand’s second-largest city suffered a ‘one-in-2,500 year’ earthquake, causing widespread destruction and the deaths of 185 people. It took just 25 seconds to change a city of 380,000 people forever. On 22 February 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck New Zealand’s Port Hills, sending a devastating shockwave through the country’s then second-most-populous city, Christchurch. An earthquake the previous September had weakened buildings and infrastructure, so the 2011 tremor’s location, shallow depth and strength caused massive damage. Immediately, buildings crumbled and collapsed, causing some to catch fire. Among those that fell was the six-storey Canterbury…
