DRC-bound horse and trailer burnt to ashes

Pini Bothoko | Tuesday March 15, 2016 15:08

At least P180,000 worth of products being transported, was destroyed.

“We are investigating a fire incident case in which a horse and trailer truck with double trailer burnt to ashes after the truck’s back tyres caught fire whilst the driver was driving towards Makomoto lands on Sunday late evening,” Tonota police station commander, Superintendent Kenanao Badumetse confirmed.

Badumetse said the truck, driven by a Zambian, was travelling from South Africa to Lubumbashi, DRC carrying around 1,350 plastic granules. He stated that no injuries were recorded in this incident despite the 34,000 kilogramme plastic granules and double trailers that were burnt to ashes.

He said another driver who was driving behind the truck saw sparks of fire from the back of the truck tyres and alerted the Zambian driver.

“The driver said he parked the truck along the roadside and found the tyres on fire.  He doused the fire with a fire extinguisher, but the fire failed to stop,” said Badumetse, confirming that in the end the two trailers caught fire and burnt to ashes. The police station commander said efforts to rescue the situation were unfruitful because the fire department from Francistown arrived late.  Badumetse said despite the damage, the driver managed to disconnect the trailers from the truck and drove them a distance from the fire. “The driver said the truck was carrying plastic granules worth around R180,000 or more,” said Badumetse. He said the plastic granules melted and caused massive damage on the road covering a distance of about eight to 10 metres. “The damage is so massive because the plastic granules have melted on the road and when the police try to remove them, they come out with the tarred road layer. This might force the department of roads to reconstruct the damaged road,” said Badumetse.

He stated that the police are currently busy trying to remove the melted plastic from the road for easy movement of other cars.

Badumetse pleaded with motorists to drive carefully when approaching Makomoto lands to avoid unnecessary road accidents caused by the plastic granules.