TOXIC FUME FEARS
Evacuation orders readied as firefighters battle inferno
THERE was fear across the city last night over possible toxic fumes from the massive cloud of dense black smoke which hung over Durban, while the city remained on standby to evacuate a 4km radius around the fire last night.
Despite intermittent rains yesterday afternoon, the fire raged on in South Coast Road, and emergency teams battled to contain the flames, while billowing smoke travelled in a dark barrel sitting low on the skyline to Ballito in the north.
By late last night, emergency teams were still battling the inferno, with the main aim to keep the flames away from a fertiliser warehouse. Fire teams were seen working in formations in half-hour durations, with a 10-minute break, to keep the flames at bay in the 2 500m2 warehouse. With 35 fire engines and 125 fire personnel on duty, operations ran late into last night.
The water department said it had made provision for enough water to be available.
Fuel stations along Solomon Mahlangu (Edwin Swales VC Drive) Drive were asked to limit the number of people in the area.
Meanwhile, residents phoned The Independent on Saturday or posted on Facebook that an oily/ waxy residue, washed out of the air by the rain, was falling onto cars, streaking walls and collecting in swimming pools. Households are faced with a massive clean-up today, using water meant to be conserved because of the drought.
The eThekwini Municipality warned residents to take care should the smoke come down to street level, and it said plans were in place for an evacuation of residents and the industrial area in a 3-4km radius around the fire.
Deputy mayor Fawzia Peer, who oversees the disaster management committee, said emergency workers were on standby to evacuate people up to a 4km radius from the fire, and they were concerned about people who had respiratory problems. Among the areas that could face evacuation are parts of the Bluff, Bayhead, Clairwood and Umbilo.
Residents however, were fearful. Kabir Singh asked on the municipal Facebook page: “Are the gases in the smoke toxic? What effects will it have?”. Others posted about the “ashy” substances found on their vehicles in La Lucia, and “waxy globules” in their pools.
eThekwini fire chief Gideon Mchunu said: “The substances were black soot and wax, neither of which are toxic.
“We are not experts on atmospheric analysis, but we don’t know of any danger posed by these substances.”
A third warehouse caught fire around 7pm, with fears that it could spread to another containing ammonia nitrate fertiliser, which would wreak havoc over a wide area.
The fire started in a warehouse off South Coast Road yesterday morning and by late morning the billowing smoke cloud hung over the city and could be seen from as far away as Ballito, on the North Coast, and Umbumbulu, on the South Coast.
Firemen battled all day to contain the raging blaze, which started at the south end of the massive warehouse park, razing at least two warehouses containing flammable polypropolene pellets, used in the plastic industry, and paraffin.
They focused on dousing the flames, as well as preventing them from spreading to other warehouses where fertiliser were stored.
Melted wax spilled out of one end of the first warehouse, creating a huge potentially flammable puddle, part of which eventually succumbed to the flames.
It also entered the Umhlatuzana River, which was sectioned off, according to Stephan Kichenbrand of the company Drizit Environmental, which specialises in pollution control.
“We’ve put booms down in the river to catch any wax,” he said. “It’s not oil-based stuff, but we can’t say whether it will be a marine pollutant.”
Last night media reports said at least four people had been injured – an employee from one of the warehouse companies who suffered burns to the hands and who was taken to Kingsway Hospital in Amanzimtoti, and several firefighters, who were also taken to hospital.
South Durban Community Environmental Alliance activist, Des D’Sa slammed the municipality last night, saying “once again residents are asking for the proposed emergency evacuation plan promised by the eThekwini Municipality for rollout during disasters such as today’s fire.
“The uncontrolled smoke and fire, like any other similar potential disasters in the south Durban industrial basin, posed a serious risk to the health of people in the area and the environment. The lack of a publicised and accessible evacuation plan is of great concern.”
He said they “believed that the building which had caught alight was a warehouse that stored wax petroleum products, which could explain the strong chemical fumes in the air and why residents and workers complained of burning eyes, nausea and coughing.
“Petroleum wax and a range of chemicals are flooding through the Umhlatuzana River and into the Durban harbour as a result of the fire.”
Transnet spokesperson Molatwane Likhethe confirmed the property belonged to Transnet, saying their emergency procedures were immediately activated, including the evacuation of everyone from the property,
Meanwhile some Durbanites continued as normal despite the threatening cloud, including the planned Hollard Daredevil Run to raise funds for Cansa (the Cancer Association of South Africa) and awareness of male cancers. Runners in speedos arrived in force at College Rovers Rugby Club at Kings Park Stadium with the heavy cloud forming a backdrop. Many at first thought it was an approaching storm, before realising it was a fire.
Local NGOs and community groups rallied to provide water and refreshments for emergency workers.