“I have been through traumatic experiences in medicine. You are taught you will see death, but nothing can prepare you for this. It was like a missile and napalm attack. A Middle Eastern war zone,” said medical intern Dr Jean Suzor of the Boksburg gas tanker blast on Christmas Eve that has killed 27 people.
Suzor and a nurse were wheeling a patient on a ventilator from the hospital’s X-ray department when the blast occurred around 7:30am near the Tambo Memorial Hospital.
LISTEN | Hospital staff recount Boksburg blast
The tanker got stuck under a low-level railway bridge and leaked thousands of litres of liquid petroleum gas (LPG).
The roaring noise of the escaping matter drew curious bystanders.
Then a spark sent fireballs shooting metres into the air, destroying the bridge, two houses, twisting railway lines, damaging the hospital and engulfing onlookers firefighters desperately tried to keep away.
Minutes later, the scenes that greeted the hospital’s terrified emergency room staff, who were running from the collapsing building, resembled the aftermath of a bomb, they said.
People flailed on the ground trying to put out flames engulfing them, while others, including nurses from the hospital who had gone to move their cars from the parking lot, ran screaming to colleagues for help.
“We had heard the earlier bang of the truck under the bridge and nurses had gone out to investigate and report back to us,” said Suzor.
“Someone then reported some flames. I saw two jets of flames. They lasted for 15 minutes and then dissipated. There was some black smoke, but that was it. I went back inside and took the patient for X-rays. The eight nurses who died were in the parking lot.”
As Suzor returned the patient from the X-ray department, he “looked out the window and saw this massive flash”.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. The nurse and I grabbed the ventilated patient and ran to get outside. It was chaos. Everything in our department collapsed around us. We were worried about the oxygen systems exploding. There were sparking wires hanging from the ceiling,” he said.
But the true horror confronted him and fellow emergency doctor Kate Smith outside.
Suzor said blast victims walked up to them with skin hanging from their bodies.
“I couldn’t understand what I was seeing. My brain couldn’t register it.
"The only way I knew there were nurses among them was by pieces of their uniforms stuck to them.
“There was nothing other than the uniform ribbing by which to recognise them. It was total carnage. People had 100% burns. It was terrifying," said Suzor.
Nurses and doctors immediately rushed victims to a makeshift emergency area at the back of the hospital.
Smith, who had been working night shift, said: “It was chaos. We were so overwhelmed. People, including our colleagues, were streaming in begging for help. At first they came in dribs and drabs, and then they poured in.
“We were evacuating our ER patients when the injured came. It was horrendous. We started finding colleagues and firefighters among the injured. They would have known the impact and outcomes of such burns.
“The firefighters had clothing that protected their bodies, but not their faces and hands. The flames engulfed their heads, which had third-degree burns. Their helmets didn’t help. From what we could see it was as though some simply melted.”
She said everything was a blur.
“We were running on fumes. We couldn’t stop. There were so many people needing help. We set up a triage section at the back and began helping the most severely injured first.
“It was painful to tell people who were injured and in pain that we had to help others, who were more seriously injured, first. We were forced to tell the walking wounded to find help at other hospitals. We just could not cope.
"I don’t know what we would have done if it had not been for the other hospital staff who came to help.
“We had cleaners and porters helping us with patients, keeping them calm. Paramedics from different ambulance services arrived, off-duty doctors and nurses from other hospitals came to our rescue.
Things only really calmed down when we could transfer the patients. That morning felt like days. There were so many heroes among us, ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”
Michael Sedibe, uncle of nurse Kgothatso Magopane who died in the explosion, said she was the one heard screaming on a viral video of the blast.
“If she had stayed in the car a bit longer maybe she would still be here. Her car got hit by rocks coming from the blast. That’s her voice ... she was screaming for her life,” he said.
Morabe Maila said she was very close to her sister, nurse Mmatsatsi Maila, and things would not be the same without her.
“Nothing will bring my sister back. She was such a lovely and kind person. I’ve been feeling like I’m dreaming since I heard the news. I’m still in shock,” she said.
Other victims included four children from the same family.
The Infinite Transport truck had been en route to Botswana from Richards Bay.
The 32-year-old driver from Umzinto, KwaZulu-Natal, whose name is known to the Sunday Times, overnighted at a truck stop in Germiston.
When he heard the vehicle scraping under the bridge he stopped and saw the tanker’s cap had been scraped off. He called his controller and the fire department, and cordoned off the scene, warning the public to leave the area immediately, but many did not listen.
— Arnoux Maré, MD, Innovative Staffing Solutions
There has been no explanation as to why he was in the area or if the company’s vehicle controllers, who are supposed to monitor vehicles around the clock, were aware of the road he was on at the time of the blast.
The driver was released on a warning this week.
At the Boksburg magistrate’s court on Wednesday, prosecutor Rose Malati said “the decision [to release him] was taken by the provincial police after looking at the docket sent to them after his arrest”.
Police spokesperson Brig Brenda Muridili said the driver was “interviewed and released on warning pending further investigations” on Tuesday.
“As soon as investigations are concluded the case docket will be sent to court for a decision.”
On Wednesday, Arnoux Maré, MD of labour broker Innovative Staffing Solutions (ISS), said the driver mistakenly took the wrong exit to get onto the N17. He tried to correct himself but the exit directed him under the bridge.
Maré said its height restriction warning was illegible and the driver stopped to check if the vehicle would make it through. He proceeded with caution, but did not realise the incline at the bottom of the bridge would raise the back of the trailer.
When he heard the vehicle scraping under the bridge he stopped and saw the tanker’s cap had been scraped off. He called his controller and the fire department, and cordoned off the scene, warning the public to leave the area immediately, but many did not listen.
“We are deeply saddened by this horrific and tragic event that claimed the lives of people,” the company said, adding that the driver had “demonstrated the utmost level of care and professionalism”.
Infinite director Pierre Cronje said: “The height of the tanker was within the height limits of the bridge. Why it got stuck is under investigation.”
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