Boksburg woman counts her losses from gas tanker explosion

The stench of fumes is still in the air in Plantation in Boksburg, where a gas tanker explosion caused huge destruction to property on Saturday and left 27 people dead.

Broken windows and smashed garage doors are evidence of the fire that ravaged parts of Sandra Kabamba’s home.

Kabamba is still trying to find the strength to pick up the pieces and rebuild her home.

Her house is next to where a tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) became wedged under a low bridge and exploded, damaging homes and destroying cars.

“I’ve not been able to sleep properly since Saturday. How can one sleep in a house with broken windows? The ceiling looks like it will fall down any minute. Door frames are unstable and have moved from the building,” she told TimesLIVE. 

When the first explosion from the tanker happened, her thatched lapa caught fire. 

“I was outside with other people and saw my lapa was on fire. I ran to my house to try to douse it. Other people followed and tried to extinguish the fire with a hosepipe, but soon after I heard my windows break.

“Everything happened so fast. I decided to take my three children and run away because the heat from the fire was too much,” she said.

She ran to her sister's house a few blocks away with her three daughters, aged six, 10 and three months. 

“When the last and biggest explosion happened, we were still on the road but far from the scene, but somehow some of the sparks flew and caught us. When I felt the sparks, I held my children close to me. It was bad.”

She stayed with her children until it cooled down at the scene. 

“I went back after seeing on the community WhatsApp group that people died.”  

Knowing she had left relatives at the scene, she rushed back but left her children. 

“It felt like a movie or dream. I was not sure what I'm seeing. There were dead bodies on the ground. It was a terrible scene,” she said. 

One of the bodies was that of her brother-in-law Jonathan Vushendibaba.

“I walked around to see if any of my loved ones were there and I was shocked to see the body of my brother-in-law cut into two pieces. The body was cut from the waist,” she said as she wept. 

As she was trying to deal with her brother-in-law's death, she saw her nephew Nathaniel Vushendibaba shouting and crying.

“He was asking for water, he was burning. I didn't know what to do, but emergency people arrived and helped him. He was taken to hospital but died there when he arrived.”

Her niece was also injured but is recovering in hospital. 

“I can't begin to imagine the pain my sister is going through. She lost a husband and son and her daughter is in hospital. This is too much for one person.”

No funeral arrangements were made yet as they were still waiting for postmortems to be conducted. 

Kabamba said her house is insured but her insurer has not yet come to assess the damage. 

“I'm tired of staying in a house without windows. I can't sleep properly and I've decided to get someone to install window glass.”

On the day of the explosion, Kabamba said she was woken up by a weird sound. She thought the sound was inside the house. 

“It sounded like a burst water pipe. I checked all the taps in the house and there was nothing. I went to check outside and there was still nothing. Then I saw the truck stuck outside under the bridge. There was a man running up and down, I think that was the truck driver,” she said. 

Curious about what was happening, she stepped outside as she saw people gathered.

“When I went there, I didn't know some of the people would die from standing there. They were not close to the truck at all. It's sad,” she said. 

Kabamba is getting counselling for her two daughters. They have been living with a friend since the explosion and are still traumatised. 

TimesLIVE

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