Mozambique tanker explosion: Fuel theft took place over two days – AIM report

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Mozambique tanker explosion: Fuel theft took place over two days – AIM report

7:13 CAT | 22 Nov 2016

Voa / Victims of the bast

The theft of fuel from a Malawian tanker truck in the western Mozambican province of Tete, which resulted in the deaths of 80 people, took place over two days, and continued even after a fire had broken out in one of the two tanks towed by the truck, according to the account given by a survivor.

Albertino Guerra, currently recovering from burns in Tete provincial hospital, told a Tete correspondent of the daily paper ‘Noticias’ that the tragedy began last Wednesday, when a Mercedes-Benz truck, towing a trailer carrying two tanks holding a total of 80,000 litres of petrol, left the main road to Malawi, and drove into the bush to the locality of Caphiridzanje.

The truck belonged to the Malawian haulage company Walkers, and it was taking the fuel from the central Mozambican port of Beira to Malawi. But the driver was involved in a scheme to steal the fuel, and drove the truck to a rendezvous with a Toyota Hino pick-up that was laden with empty plastic containers.

The thieves used an electric pump to drain the fuel from one of the tanks into the plastic containers. But at about 19.30 the pump short-circuited and a fire broke out. Both the pick-up truck and one of the tanks towed by the Mercedes Benz caught fire.

Unable to put out the fire in the tank, the Malawian driver and the other thieves left the scene and removed the damaged pick-up truck to an unknown destination. Guerra said the pick-up belonged to a man living in the 12th neighbourhood of Moatize town, who has long been involved in the illicit informal trade in fuel.

The following day, Thursday, one of the two tanks was still on fire, but the second was intact. A crowd gathered, including Guerra, and, in the absence of any police, they decided to raid the second tank.

“We began to remove the petrol at about 10.00 and by 16.00 we had emptied the entire tank”, Guerra said.

More people were arriving and, astonishingly, the crowd decided to remove fuel from the tank that was already on fire. Somebody opened the valve on the tank – this, of course, let more oxygen in and fed the smouldering fire.

“A jet of fire erupted which affected everybody nearby”, said Guerra. “I saw my friend fall with his body in flames, and the same happened to others. It was impossible for us to help each other”.

‘Noticias’ notes that the illicit trade in stolen fuel has been under way in Moatize district for the past decade. Informal traders store fuel in containers in their houses and sell it to motorists. The fuel distribution companies have protested at this unfair competition, and the mining companies in Moatize have also protested at the dangerous and illicit trade in fuel. Yet nothing was done to stop it, and last week the tragedy waiting to happen finally struck.

Source: AIM