One person was reported missing on Wednesday following a blaze that ripped through the Island View Storage (IVS) depot in Durban, police said.
Superintendent Vincent Mdunge said initial reports indicated that three IVS employees had been working on one of the storage tanks when the first tank exploded on Tuesday evening. Two of the three men managed to escape to safety, but the third man could not be accounted for.
Mdunge and IVS MD Koos Ehlers both said they could not confirm whether the employee had died in the blaze or simply fled.
Ehlers said earlier in the day that until a body had been found IVS could not say that the man had died in the blaze.
”With regret we have established that one person is unaccounted for. We have been in contact with the family, and cannot release any details until the situation has been confirmed,” he said.
It could not be confirmed whether an inquest docket or a missing persons report had been filed.
In a statement released shortly after midday on Wednesday, Ehlers said eight tanks had been damaged or destroyed. ”The products stored in these tanks include solvents, alcohols, paraffins and some cresol. One alcohol tank is burning under controlled conditions as per the fire department’s instructions.”
Cresol is a chemical compound often used in the manufacture of household detergents.
Ehlers said the environmental effects of the blaze were still being assessed and that initial indications were that water and air pollution had been minimal. ”Specialists are currently on site to assess the situation.”
The first of the tanks exploded shortly after 7pm on Tuesday night. This was quickly succeeded by blasts at two other tanks. Hundreds of residents on the Bluff flocked to view flames shooting high into the night sky.
It took firefighters more than four hours to bring the blaze under control. Vessels at Island View berths were evacuated as a safety precaution. Also evacuated were about 100 residents on the Bluff immediately bordering the depot, but they were allowed back to their homes two hours later.
eThekwini metro police cordoned off all roads in the area, rerouting trucks headed for the Durban container terminal.
It was not known what caused the explosions. — Sapa