Egoli Gas to put extra measures in place to ensure no fires on its lines

Egoli Gas says there was an isolated fire on one of its gas lines on the corners of Bertha and De Korte streets in Braamfontein on Tuesday afternoon. 

"The gas pipeline was immediately isolated and the fire was contained within 15 minutes," Egoli Gas said in a statement. A truck and building caught fire,

Johannesburg emergency medical services said five people were treated on the scene and taken to different medical facilities for further treatment.

Egoli Gas says it has been working closely with the executive team of the City of Johannesburg since the Lilian Ngoyi (formely Bree) Street explosion in July to make the city safe.  

"This involves exposing sections of pipeline and sleeving to ensure integrity of the network."

Egoli Gas said it will, in conjunction with the City of Johannesburg, put extra measures in place to ensure that an incident like this does not occur again. 

"A root cause analysis will be concluded and agreement has been reached with the executive team of Johannesburg that JMPD and EMS will be informed of future work to assist with the management of traffic and public movement in areas where work is planned."

The City of Johannesburg said Egoli Gas was doing routine maintenance work when the explosion occurred.

Speaking to reporters at the scene, city manager Floyd Brink said: "In this case, this [is] a 355mm gas pipe from Egoli Gas where they are doing some form of a resealing. It's like an upgrade, but also something that was a preventive measure on their side."

-Additional reporting by Thabo Tshabalala 

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