Nine people died and forty were injured in the explosion of a tanker truck full of gas in Boksburg, about 40 km east of Johannesburg, in South Africa, emergency services reported on Saturday. The incident will be investigated, said Tania Campbell, the mayor of Ekurhuleni, the municipality that includes Boksburg. “The disaster management group is on the scene helping the victims of this tragedy and evaluating the cause of the accident,” she said.
The truck, which was carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), “got stuck under a bridge” near a hospital and several apartment buildings. “We received a call around 07:50 [06:50 CET] pointing out that there was a tanker truck stranded under a bridge. The firefighters received the notice to extinguish the flames but, unfortunately, the truck exploded,” William Ntladi, spokesman for the area’s emergency services, told AFP.
Police and emergency personnel at the scene of the event.
One of the injured is the driver of the vehicle, who had to be hospitalized, the spokesman added. Of the injured, 19 are in critical condition and 15 in serious but stable condition. Six firefighters also have superficial injuries, Ntladi said. At the moment there is no information on the identity of the fatalities. The top of the truck collided with a bridge that was too low for the height of the truck, causing it to jam and causing the flames that eventually blew it up, according to emergency services officials.
The tanker truck was reportedly delivering gas to the nearby OR Tambo Memorial Hospital, where some of the injured were treated. Patients from some hospital units had to be evacuated due to the explosion and fire, according to local media reports. “Going through here was a sight of utter devastation, I’ve never seen anything like it before,” local resident Simon Lapping told the local Citizen newspaper. He said that he saw the bodies of six adults and two children.
The wrecked truck was carrying 60,000 liters of LPG, a fuel used especially in kitchens and gas stoves. Video footage shared by residents on social media showed the dramatic explosion, with pedestrians fleeing the fire and cars speeding up dramatically. Several houses and vehicles have been damaged in the blast, according to local reports.
