By Kamini Padayachee and Jeff Wicks

Explosions ripped through a paint factory in Durban’s Phoenix Industrial Park on Thursday, sending a huge plume of black smoke high above the city and a disaster for Durban was narrowly averted.

No one was killed or seriously hurt in a series of dramatic fireballs, after fire broke out at 11.30am in the ChemSpec factory, a major Durban industry and sponsor of sports events.

The company has not given an estimate of the damage, but it is expected to be “substantial”, running into tens of millions of rands.

Smoke could be seen all around Durban as firefighters battled the blaze for more than three hours.

Bruce de Gier, Divisional Commander of eThekwini Fire: North, said the fire was so intense that it needed a vast amount of water, which had to be pumped from five tankers at the scene in addition to the local municipal supply. “At this stage we do not know what caused the fire,” he said.

Connal Gentles said he had been driving out of Phoenix when he had seen thick smoke billowing from a factory and then three blasts had occurred. “Fire trucks started dousing the flames and the factory next door… as black smoke rose high into the sky,” he said.

“Metro police had blocked the roads, so everyone was getting out of their cars to watch. As the fire intensified, there was explosion, after explosion after explosion.”

ChemSpec spokesperson Ray de Vries said the fire had broken out in the architectural coatings division and had quickly spread.

Staff tried to contain the fire but to no avail, and implemented emergency evacuation procedures. They all got out before a number of explosions ripped through the factory.

Emergency services were on the scene “within minutes”, De Vries said. “Thank God there were no fatalities and only one minor injury to one worker with minor burns to his hands.”

The employee was taken to Mount Edgecombe Hospital.

“What could have been a major disaster for Durban was extremely well handled by staff and emergency services,” De Vries said, adding that training and emergency procedures had been followed.

ChemSpec said the last regular fire check had been carried out four weeks ago by local fire chief Jeremy Rasson.

De Vries said ChemSpec CEO Strath Wood had flown by helicopter to the scene. “Fortunately, the environmental damage was minimal.”

But environmental experts were concerned about paint and solvent run-off into a nearby stream.

Lin Gravelet-Blondin, deputy director for Water Quality Management at the department of water affairs and forestry, said there would be an environmental backlash: “Paint which was washed into the stream by water from firefighters caused discolouration of the water and initially, there was concern as to whether it was water-based or otherwise.”

On closer inspection, it was established that the paint was a PVA water emulsion and was shown to be non-hazardous. “Together with the fire department and a clean-up crew, the affected area of the stream was blocked off.”

He was worried about possible oxygen deprivation or the smothering of river life.

[email protected]

[email protected]

• URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>