Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

People can thank their lucky stars it was only dead fish floating around Durban’s harbour this week, and not scores of human corpses, or incinerated remains of people among smouldering buildings at the port complex.

Had the blaze not been contained, and spread to other parts of the petro-chemical complex and nearby refineries, the entire city would probably now be engulfed in “a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions”, said Durban Metro fire and emergency services divisional commander Melvin Ramlal.

The divisional commander of firefighters was at the forefront to contain the port blaze that erupted after four tanks exploded at Island View Storage (IVS) – one of the largest bulk liquid storage and handling operations in Africa.

This tank farm complex of more than 350 tanks holds up to 320 000 cubic metres of “high and low flash point chemicals” – mostly toxic and highly flammable.

Ramlal was among the first firefighters on the scene, facing a “white” blaze from a cocktail of chemicals.

Given the magnitude of the inferno, and not knowing what chemicals were ablaze or the contents of the plumes of black, toxic smoke, Ramlal called on the South African National Defence Force, South African Police Services and Metro Police to start evacuating people from neighbouring residential areas.

“We activated the disaster management plan, Pegasus, that activates evacuation, and summons all agencies, the SANDF, Metro Police, SAPS, National Intelligence Agency and the Cutler board (management of the petro chemical precinct) to a Joint Operation Centre.”

Ramlal said besides instructing an entire shutdown of the petro chemicals precinct, and evacuating all workers, ships birthed adjacent to the emergency area were also instructed to clear out.

Ramlal said in terms of Pegasus, updates of what was happening in the emergency area would be conveyed through the Joint Operation Centre to the municipal manager, the press and radio to keep the public appraised of the situation.

He declined to comment on the confusion surrounding evacuations in neighbouring residential areas.

“That was outside my control. As incident commander on scene, my concern was the fire. Given the volume of volatile products sitting there, our immediate concern was to stop the fire spreading. Four tanks were alight, but there are thousands of others around there,” said Ramlal.

He said they first had to get information from site managers about what was contained in the exploded tankers.

“That’s when we met with a cocktail of inflammable and poisonous hydro carbons in the storage area. Ramlal said because of the intense heat, other tanks in the vicinity were also pressurising and bulging, their flanges and manifolds leaking all sorts of products into the bunded areas (sealed walls to contain leaked fluids).

“So we had all those chemicals falling in there, and they were also igniting,” said Ramlal.

Ramlal was full of praise for the firemen who took up position at the “flame front” to form an isolation barrier and set up equipment under protection of water curtains.

Intensity

Temperatures, he said, reached up to 1 800C.

“One could see this from the distortion of the tanks and the intensity of the colour of the flames. It was clear, white light at one stage. It was a true test of the mettle of firefighters that saved the city. Had another tank gone up, we could have all been killed,” said Ramlal.

Ramlal said a decision taken to drain the protective bunds of soluble chemicals and wash them into the harbour had greatly contributed to containing the fire.

He said had the winds been strong south-westerly that night – and not light north-easterly, as was the case – the outcome might have been very different, with the potential of a “complete burn out”.

“It’s too scary to even consider what may have happened. Until there is a risk audit, we won’t know exactly what threat it posed,” said Ramlal.