Ten people have been killed and several others injured after a gas tanker exploded near the South African city of Boksburg, causing widespread damage.
Rescuers say the deadly blast occurred after a tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) got caught beneath a bridge close to a hospital and houses.
Emergency services say they are investigating.
Al Jazeera’s @SoniaGallego reports.
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Failed state
What do you mean by “failed state”? Did you watch the news? Your comment is somehow bizarre.
Add Europe and America and the rest of the world to the list. These things happen everywhere. I hope you live in paradise cos here on Earth problems are in every corner of the world, not just South Africa.
What caused it to blow up?
@Muhammad Adam Bin Mohd Razihan caused sparks. That makes sense. So no chance of bring intentional? Pretty soft tango area. Just curious.
@BRAVO JULIET ALPHA it looks like negligence more than intentional.
Truck got stuck under a bridge – it caught on fire after 35 mins and exploded once, injuring the driver (who was trying to secure the scene) then that same explosion and fire atttracted all the resident to go see what was happening then the second explosion.
It was unintentional and eyewitnesesses said that the driver tried what he could to keep people away but they refused to go away
There were multiple secondary explosions. The tanker was in a residential area. There were other cars on the road, some of which also apparently exploded. It was also very close to the hospital parking lot. Three of the people who died today were hospital workers who may have been trying to move their cars. They were very badly burned. The fireball also did massive damage to some of the surrounding houses and some people were burned inside their own yards.
The initial explosion was probably triggered by the gas leak, combined with the tanker truck that was burning.
@BRAVO JULIET ALPHA you
Your response was horrible, you let civilians run up to the burning tanker so they could video it with phones and those are all the people that died, all the videos online stop recording when the tanker explodes with everyone crowding the tanker.
So you blame that on their response time? I’m South African so I completely understand the competence level you are trying to reference here but I call it pure idiocy.
Actually fascinating how your claim is debunked already as the first videos released has the toll at 8 dead as the first people arrived on scene yet there are 10 deaths as of the release time of your statement.
Should go without saying as you expect the first responders to arrive on scene and contain the situation before the first and closest civilian with a smart phone and an extra chromosome arrives on scene.
Sis on you!!
That was before any emergency people got there. People will do what they want to until someone cordon off the area. Its like that everywhere. The average person is stupid like that. And there were only fire men to deal with it. At that point I assumed they just wanted to take care of putting the fire out and not crowd control
FAILED STATE
Failed state is that thing between your legs.
The only thing that’s failing is what’s inbetween your mother’s legs hence she birthed you.
It never will be.
This comment is bizarre.
@Lawrance Seseni you people do not watch lebanon and other countries, the power does not stay on in your house or in your mind.
The tanker was carrying LPG, it was not going to the hospital. It had a delivery in one of the provinces (not too sure which one) . The tanker was attempting to go under the bridge and got stuck, I think the driver attempted to continue pushing the truck through. Due to friction and heat caused by trying to move under the bridge, the leaking gas ignited and that’s what caused the explosion. This was pure negligence by the truck driver and the staff involved in planning the routes. Totally unnecessary. I live within 5kms of the hospital and that explosion was intense.
The representative of the trucking company said there was a long delay (35 minutes?) between getting stuck and the fire starting, and then another 10-15 minutes, during which fire services were on the scene, before the explosion. If that is true, they had time to evacuate the area but failed to do so.
Well analysed
Thank you for the explanation…. that’s tragic loss of lives !!
@grantm most of the fatalities occurred when people went to the scene to video the fire, then the second explosion occurred resulting in so many injuries and deaths.
We are also about 5km away, our house shook
The Tanker was not delivering gas to the hospital, it was transporting the gas to Botswana. The driver must have been taking a short cut through the residential area, then the truck got stuck under the bridge.
Yea citations please
From KZN? He was way out of his way. One mother lost 4 children.
@mphomosia3941 There is no reason to use this road as a shortcut, it is a minor road. The only reason would be that he was going to the hospital.
@Charlie CharltonThat’s beyond heart breaking
And it makes no sense when they say he’s delivering to the hospital
I live here.when you go under the bridge you’ve already passed all entrances to the hospital 💔
Drones BOMBINGS itself etc again…
Don’t worry about the railway lol.
Poor same BRICS nation’s as usual. Endless dance cheers celebrate etc…
What has BRICS got to do with this? Lay off the meth.
Everything is a joke in South Africa how can you be a bystander to a that is onfire already
Bc in south Africa, you can do what you want, it’s called Freedom.
You are a special kind of slow
Yes
So what do you think is the solution to this problem?🤔
alot of people got hurt or died because of trying to get a video to post , that time the smell of gas is everywhere
On some of the videos there were huge flames already and people were not evacuated or just walk and run away. I don’t get that. Such an unnecessary tragedy
@Lulu I don’t think anyone expected the blast radius to be that big and people did not account for the possibility of secondary explosions. Some people got burned in their own yards / homes. It seems hospital staff got injured trying to evacuate their cars. Most people likely did not even know it was a gas tanker. Some residents reported thinking that it was their personal gas supplies (for cooking and heating during electricity blackouts) that exploded.
It is not the people who got hurt who made this a senseless tradgedy. That tanker should never have been there in the first place – and no one from the trucking company or the labour broker can / will explain why a shipment of explosive goods from Richards Bay to Botswana was detouring in Boksburg of all places.
While “spectators” at any accident scene are a significant risk, the victims are not at fault for this tragedy.
Same happen here in Sierra Leone. Tanker had an accident spilling gas the poeple collecting free gas . They have cigarettes . Then booooom hundreds dead. Last year freetown
This was not petrol, this was LPG
My condolences to all. I am so sorry for your loss in the festive time. 🙏
Condolences to the bereaved families
We don’t mind of the railway worried of people died and negligence of this driver my condolences to the family and God’s hand to touch those injured
Actually at first I also blamed the driver. However he did follow safety protocol by driving it under the bridge to contain the explosion and he did notify onlookers to evacuate. Humans being human didn’t listen and went to video the 1st fire. That’s when they got caught in the explosion. If he hadn’t parked it under the bridge the damage and death toll would have been much higher
Viva EFF viva
Definitely a human error.
He was not supposed to drive there.
Trucks and tankers have their own routes.
Rip to those that lost their lives.
The first explosion attracted people to go see what was happening, and the second explosion killed them. Very very sad
Zelensky to blame.
That explosion is equivalent to 1 x 120MM Incendiary artillery shell. Over 3000 of those shells have been used in the Ukrainian conflict. It is incomprehensible how we humans lose our humanity to kill each other so easily, when respect & peace comes at a much lower cost.
We were quiet when america bombed Iraq and killed 1.3 million people, we do the same with Ukraine. If we make noise about Ukraine now, we become hypocrites of note coz our pain would be a lie.
@Phumudzo Nemadidi We weren’t quiet? Hundreds of books, articles and protests criticised the Iraq war throughout it’s duration. Don’t say “we were quiet” just because you read one or two headlines and forgot about it, it’s an insult to all the voices that spoke up against it.
Those voices did 0 difference tho. No one was held accountable. The US don’t recognize international law nor The Hague.
The US have bombed and conducted warfare in 38 countries in the last 77 years. 20-30 million people have died as a result. Established a concentration camp where people from all over the world were kidnapped to and tortured without trial (Gitmo).
800 military bases around the world and 0 foreign base in the US. I wonder which country is the real evil empire.
USA is evil. Capitalism isn’t democracy, the minority who holds the wealth, the resources rule no the people.
ATDF driver
there is too many Zimbabweans in South Africa
It’s not time to talk about that please not now.
Change from your mental attitude it can kill you
@Flora Rice where i come from attitudes dont kill people- Zimbabweans do… check the JMPD stats
@TRS: Mzansi You are a bigot
what has this got to do with zim or are you a biggot?
The gas was going to Botswana
Please retract your inaccurate reporting. This was not a routine delivery. The gas was meant for export to Botswana. It was not meant for the hospital.
VERY SAD…LOST OF LIVES……..HUMAN ERROR…..
My cousin passed away 😰 his house got burned doing the accident and the family members are in hospital😭😭, from South Africa
Sorry for your loss brother/sister😢
I’m so sorry for your loss , praying for you and your family
Really sorry for your loss. I live nearby. We all need to see how and where we can assist people.
this is so heartbreaking❤😢
🥺🥺🫂❤️
Not a fuel tanker, gas tanker.
How the driver miss judged the height of the bridge,,most of the bridges are written height restriction ???
There were no height restriction signs on the bridge. There are supposed to be height signs.
All trucks have they are own GPS. That mean following specific route different than ordinary vehicles
It will be part of the investigation why he was on that road. Sadly 18 people have now died.
15 killed one lady lost 4 kids
💔💔💔
tanker from richardsbau to over boder
When you have a useless minister of transport…
He a pekyou
The tanker was transporting gas from Richards Bay to Botswana. No notification was given to the surrounding towns to notify them that a dangerous gas was being transported. The driver was not following the correct route.
The tanker was not delivering gas at the hospital, it was delivering gas to Botswana, but the drive took a route that was not scheduled and went under a bridge that was too low for the truck height. The driver has since been arrested for the calamity he has caused by not obeying the laws of the kind of truck he drives and for not following procedure for delivering flammable cargo.
How did the driver survive such an explosion 💥?
@Zanele Semelane he ran after realising the truck was abt to explode
@Zanele Semelane , the first explosion only happened 30 minutes after the truck got stuck. He was in the truck by then
It’s South Africa, they were probably trying to steal the lorry. Nothing outa the ordinary
The probability of what you’re saying is 0. It’s been debunked by facts that have been out since the aftermath of the explosion
@mpesh yonkinto I guess the probability of anything being jacked or stolen in South Africa is 0.
@Random Guy With No Name No no, you’re right when you put it that way just in general but we’re not talking about the probability of things that could be or are stolen in SA right now, we’re talking about this recent accident in particular and the causes. The reports made it clear what happened.
Rest in peace.
South African incompetence on full display. This is just the tip of the ice berg and unfortunately more innocent people have passed because of that incompetence.
Sabotage to divert attention from Ramaphosa impasse.
💔
Was not delivering gas to hospital.
So sad. Siuth Africa need the railways back. Far too many trucks
May their so rest in peace, guys please no pointing finger at this point, this is disaster
6 firefighters got injured, smells like incompetence and un-readiness for something like this… These type of things doesn’t occur in South Africa, probably the first time, or close to it… An investigation will be done and the next time they would be able to handle it in a more effective way… I hope🤞
🙆♀️🙆♀️🙆♀️😭😭😭😭😭
This is heart breaking oh lord 😢
Death toll has risen. It’s now15 people dead.
Further update. Drath
Death toll is now 18
Retract this video and do it over. Your credibility is on the line.
The death toll is now 15
Was the bridge height marked? Usually is. Did the driver know how tall his truck was? He should have.
Mike did,s/o bros
This literally reminds me of what happened in Lebanon.
Incompetence!
This is so so sad and hart breaking 😢 💔
Stupidity once again claims the lives of innocent people. The law is clear:
– Trucks are not allowed on a RESIDENTIAL road
– Trucks are not to ride under such a bridge (which was not designed dor trucks in the first place)
If his destination was Botswana, what was he doing in a RESIDENTIAL road in Boksburg?
How more easier should I laws be made for idiots to finally understand?
My condolences for the families. Routine things often are catastrophically neglected in South Africa. Our country has been hollowed out by the disease of corruption and incompetence.
One bit of good news tho, the driver is ok and will be out on bail and back home with his family cross border before new years day.
People in this country put little to no effort in the work they do, they just relaxed about everything till someone’s dead.
RiP 😑
My sympathy for the families,remember the saying’curosity killed the cat’,leaking gas and fuel means stay far away,dont go towards it,bit im sorry it happend
To have likes on social media its not worth it
That truck driver was doing acts of terrorism! Why force a big DANGEROUS-GOODS truck through a low bridge like that????
its is 18 deaths atm
What you won’t see is the video of the people walking around the neighborhood afterward with their clothes burnt off and covered in 3rd degree burns, walking around like zombies with smoke still coming off their burnt bodies, and essentially waiting to die while in excruciating pain.
This was an incredibly disgusting tragedy that brought pure horror to the lives of many.
I saw it
The charred humans walking begging for relief was so sad :'(”
And people will still think fuel is the best way to power future cars 🤦🏻♂️
Especially the truck driver
What ever is left of RSA, you are destroying that to
People of south africa are rude
Ihhhshhh
Dont test or try fireworks a chemic Reaktion get send it create terrible weather the government will use the firework to bomb and kill all people in Silvester the real government is of mars all others are terminator and babay can get already born by a machine. This Silvester hide in bunkas doñt use firework. Please share!!! I love U by God!!! Please share!!!
Iuwisi
Death toll has actually risen to 27…😭