Gas cylinder blast leaves trail of destruction
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday January 16, 2017 18:00
The explosion ripped through a busy street at Light Industrial area opposite Midas Francistown shattering windows of nearby businesses and injuring eight people in its wake.
The heavy blast was heard a few kilometres from the scene and even at the Mmegi/The Monitor offices about 1,2 kilometres away. People from the nearby Itekeng, popularly known as Area W, came to the scene in droves upon hearing the blast which sent shrapnels hurtling to the roof of Midas Francistown where they remained stuck on the roof.
Eyewitnesses who were at the scene of the incident when the blast happened said that two employees of the gas tanker truck company were busy welding the truck’s trailer using a gasoline welding machine when the horrific incident occurred.
They told The Monitor that the employees of the company were on top the trailer using the gasoline welding machine to close some holes on the trailer’s body when the blast occurred.
One of the witnesses, Goitsemodimo Setume told this publication the impact of the blast threw the employees to the other side of the road and landed near Midas Francistown lying motionless.
Setume said he saw the man who was on top of the trailer flying in the air and afterwards he discovered that the trailer’s body was totally ripped off by the blast.
Afterwards, Setume said the blast also sent the man who, was welding the truck flying in the air and he also fell on the other side of the road near Midas Francistown.
“Those two guys are badly injured. They are in a very bad state.
The one who was on top of the trailer has sustained serious injuries all over his body while his colleague also sustained similar injuries,” said a tearful and visibly shocked Setume.
When The Monitor arrived at the scene, the police had placed some card boxes which eyewitnesses said the police put there to prevent members of the public from seeing the bones of people who were injured during the blast.
Efforts to clarify that assertion hit a snag as police officers who were at the scene of incident referred this reporter to Lebalang Maniki, the station commander for Francistown Police Station if he wanted to know about the blast.
Eyewitnesses told The Monitor that the blast also injured four Nyangabgwe Primary School students who were walking along the road home from school near where the trailer was parked.
They said that the students sustained serious injuries and just like the workers, were taken to Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital for medical attention. This publication also discovered that the blast also seriously injured a street vendor and her son who were selling their wares about six metres from the back of where the trailer was parked.
Eye-witnesses said that the vendor sustained injuries on the head when sharp particles of shattered window of a nearby business where she was selling her wares from fell on her while her son’s lost some fingerson one of his hands following the blast.
The owner of GHP Motors Tshepi Bahlang confirmed the incident. She said that her employees are still admitted at the hospital but are recovering.
“One of my employees sustained a broken leg when the unfortunate accident occurred,” said Bahlang. Bahlang also said that the child of a vendor who was injured during the incident was also recovering and was released from hospital yesterday.
She added that the schoolboys who were injured when the blast occurred were recovering.
Maniki confirmed the incident.
He said one of the injured employees was in a critical condition at the hospital but his condition is improving. Maniki added that the schoolboys who were also injured when the gasoline cylinder exploded were recovering.