Niël Terblanché
FIREFIGHTERS of the Windhoek Fore Brigade has managed to extinguish the hellish flames from burning fuel tanker train carriages after battling the blaze for about five hours.
It has since been established that the ten carriages were not part of any train that moved between Okahandja and Windhoek.
According to one of the emergency workers on the scene of the disaster, the ten train cars that were filled with diesel, Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), and petrol were parked on a siding near Windhoek’s main fuel depot just south of the Van Eck Coal Power Station.
The fuel inside the train cars was supposed to be transferred to the storage tanks of the fuel depot.
Pictures: Courtesy of Sean Naude and various other contributors. 
Pictures: Courtesy of Sean Naude and various other contributors. 
Pictures: Courtesy of Sean Naude and various other contributors. 
Pictures: Courtesy of Sean Naude and various other contributors. 
Pictures: Courtesy of Sean Naude and various other contributors. 
Pictures: Courtesy of Sean Naude and various other contributors. 
Pictures: Courtesy of Sean Naude and various other contributors. 
Pictures: Courtesy of Sean Naude and various other contributors. 
Pictures: Courtesy of Sean Naude and various other contributors. 
Pictures: Courtesy of Sean Naude and various other contributors. 
Pictures: Courtesy of Sean Naude and various other contributors. 
Pictures: Courtesy of Sean Naude and various other contributors. 
Pictures: Courtesy of Sean Naude and various other contributors.
“The brakes on the train cars were apparently not engaged. The cars were parked at the fuel depot and waiting for a locomotive from the main shunting yard to push them inside the depot in order for the fuel to be pumped over to the storage tanks. Gravity took over and the train cars started rolling downhill towards Döbra,” the emergency worker said.
It is believed that the train cars sped up quite significantly while running downhill and that the momentum caused them to derail at a bend in the tracks at the entrance of the truck depot of WP Transport.
The fuel spilled out of the damaged cars and caught fire.
Some of the spilled fuel ran further downhill and when the fire started it also ignited some transport trailers that were parked on the premises of the truck depot.
The emergency worker said that the Windhoek Fire Brigade ordered firefighters to move away from the burning cars while the LPG was still burning because they feared that some of the cars might still explode.
However, after all the gas was burned up, the firefighters returned to the blaze in full force and used special chemicals that when mixed with water in the firetrucks, turn into a thick foam to finally extinguish the blaze.
After the searing flames were brought under control firefighters used water from their pumps and fire hoses to cool the tanker trucks down to prevent the fire from igniting again.
