South Africa’s state logistics firm Transnet has confirmed that three people died after an attempted fuel theft caused a massive fire in Horseshoe Road, Jacobs, yesterday.
The company temporarily closed its fuel pipeline in the eastern city of Durban after a fire broke out nearby.
The inferno was caused by an attempted fuel theft in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Transnet Pipelines’ operations centre “immediately shut down the pipeline and activated the emergency response plan”, it said in a statement, adding that an impact assessment and full investigation were underway.
Noting that three people had died in the incident, it added that “the current focus is to extinguish the fire and minimise the impact on the community and the environment.”
Transnet Pipelines is a division of Transnet in charge of 3,800-kilometre petroleum and gas pipeline network connecting Durban to South Africa’s most populous Gauteng province, home to its economic hub Johannesburg.
The incidents have damaged assets and the environment as well as causing serious injuries and fatalities.