Watch: Causes of fuel truck explosion in Mozambique remain uncertain

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Watch: Causes of fuel truck explosion in Mozambique remain uncertain

1:20 CAT | 21 Nov 2016

TVM

The cause of a tanker explosion on Thursday in Tete province, central Mozambique, remains uncertain, the Minister for State Administration said on Friday, updating the number of people killed in the tragedy to 73.

“The elements are there, they are loose, and we all heard. It is important to give the appropriate commission time, with appropriate experts, to bring to light what actually happened,” Minister Carmelita Namashulua, who is heading a central government delegation to assist victims and relatives, told reporters in the city of Tete.

Several versions of the tanker explosion in Caphiridzange in the Moatize district have been circulating, from a lightning strike as dozens of people were removing fuel, to the vehicle’s overheating due to a fire the day before, including reports of a police officer firing shots to disperse the crowd.

However, the hypothesis that seems to be gaining most currency, according to the Government, is that the fire was caused by sparks from metallic objects used by the population to puncture the truck’s fuel tank after the driver had abandoned the vehicle.

“There was an unusual movement, like some trying to take [fuel] with drums that they would push into and pull out of the tank as if they were drawing water from a well. There were others with all kinds of plastic and metal objects. Others still tried to take [the fuel] with hoses, and tried to drill holes in the tank,” Namashulua said, insisting that the commission of inquiry would satisfy all doubts.

The death toll as a result of the blast rose again today to 73, six more than the figure released on Saturday, according to the government. Among the victims, the Minister said, were two pregnant women and 12 children who were involved in the collective theft of the fuel.

The minister said that health services capacity had been increased, including the deployment of doctors from Manica and Sofala provinces of medicines and 15 air conditioning units for the wards.

Referring to the more than 60 injured who are still hospitalised in Tete, some of them critically ill, Namashulua said: “We are trying to overcome the pain and, as far as possible, see what we can do to save the lives of our fellow citizens.”

The government has exhumed 12 bodies of victims of the explosion that had been buried in a common grave near the site of the tragedy and re-buried them in the local cemetery in response to community appeals that there should be no graves near the village access road.

The government decreed three days of national mourning beginning at midnight on Friday and has appointed a commission of inquiry into the disaster led by the Ministry of Justice with input from the Ministries of Interior, Transport and Communications, State Administration and Public Function and Energy and Mineral Resources.

Reports to the Lusa news agency website suggest that the tanker, with a Malawian license plate and belonging to a fuel distribution company, deviated by arrangement from its route on Wednesday afternoon to a small forest about 400 meters from National Highway 7, where part of its load was to be taken out in jerry cans by a group of street resellers.

But following a fuel pump short circuit, one section of the tank caught fire, causing onlookers to gather.

On Thursday, the truck driver having fled and in the absence of the authorities, the population began to remove buckets of fuel from the second still-intact section of the tank. It was this section that exploded, killing 43 people at the scene and leaving more than 100 wounded.