Wasabee!
Executive Member
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2012
- Messages
- 5,315
- Reaction score
- 1,450
Reminds me of Trevor Noah:
We will launch eh probe of investigation as to why these things have happened! Where does this lighting come from!?
-
Join the MyBroadband community
South Africa’s biggest forum. Discuss, discover, and connect with thousands of members.
-
Question of the Day: How do you normally pay for purchases in stores?
2018 Denel explosion (Somerset West)
- Thread starter Gordon_R
- Start date
We will launch eh probe of investigation as to why these things have happened! Where does this lighting come from!?
Other Pineapple Smurf
Honorary Master
I was not living here in late 90's ('97-'00) so was not aware of that one.
Gordon_R
Honorary Master
https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/...ies-in-denel-explosion-city-official-20180904
Gruesome details, and the cause of explosion may be very hard to determine...
Limited facts so far:
https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/...s-officials-inspect-denel-blast-site-20180904
Gruesome details, and the cause of explosion may be very hard to determine...
Limited facts so far:
https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/...s-officials-inspect-denel-blast-site-20180904
AchmatK
Honorary Master
The possibility of them recovering some of the bodies is very slim. I feel for my son's friends who are only 8 & 11. The eldest one is taking it the hardest as he cannot come to terms with it until he sees his father's body.
I lost my father when I was 12 in a horrific taxi accident and remember that seeing his body and burying him added some closure for me.
I lost my father when I was 12 in a horrific taxi accident and remember that seeing his body and burying him added some closure for me.
daveza
Honorary Master
What am I missing here -
They are going to use DNA to identify the victims according to reports.
Surely you look at your staff list and see which of those haven't come to work since ?
They are going to use DNA to identify the victims according to reports.
Surely you look at your staff list and see which of those haven't come to work since ?
supersunbird
Honorary Master
Even worse, what kind of mickey mouse operation are they running there with no access control showing who was there?
Ares1000101
Senior Member
I've done work there with my previous company. We needed to sign in and get name tags and leave cell phones and cigarette lighters behind.
But in all honesty, I feel I can go there on my own, drop a name or 2 of people that work there, tell them where I'm going and I would prob be let in.
Weird to explain but that's the feeling I got about the security. Like it's there, but procedures are followed without common sense or without extra judgment. Typical of Um.... Any run of the mill security in this country.
Fmi, we made measuring instruments to measure dimensions of a long waxy type propellant.
AchmatK
Honorary Master
DNA is collected to confirm body parts.
They know who was meant to be in that location at that time but need to confirm who the body parts belong to.
It's not likely that any of the victims are complete bodies. The family also need the remains for burial. The only way to identify the body parts are through DNA testing of relatives such as children or parents of the victims.
They have not yet officially identified any of the eight victims. Death certificates will only be issued when the victims have been officially identified and that can only be done with DNA.
daveza
Honorary Master
So they 'know' who the eight are, they just need to go through the legalities.
There must be a few thousand body parts, surely they don't DNA match all of them ?
AchmatK
Honorary Master
I'm not sure how they will be conducting the DNA testing but I am in contact with the wife of one of the victim's and she was asked to come in with either her son or MIL for DNA testing. All she was told about her husband is that he was in that building at the time of the explosion. He's car is still parked there and his cellphone and keys are still in his locker as he could not take it with him into that building.
I don't think the family will get any remains as there are probably hundreds of body parts. Also the temperature is reported to have exceeded 2000°c at the time of the explosion. Once they get confirmation of one body part, they will then confirm that victim until all the possible victims are confirmed. There could also be the possibility that a victim cannot be identified as he could have been too close and there was nothing to test.
The Voice
Honorary Master
Getting anything is going to be almost impossible: cremation occurs at half that temperature. They'll be lucky to find bones. But, if they do, at least the families will have something to bury.
Remember the 2009 fire that killed 13 staff members at Paarl Print?
The Department of Labour refused to allow public access to the report and families of the victims had to wait six years until the North Gauteng High Court ruled on the matter. The NPA refused to prosecute anyone in connection with the fire.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Honorary Master
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2005
- Messages
- 24,930
- Reaction score
- 27,895
Without going into too much details, different mechanics. Continuous high temperate vs a flash of high temperature.
I think it is going to be nigh impossible to establish the cause of this considering that all the evidence is completely obliterated.
A likely cause could have been something as simple as static electricity during the blending operation.
A likely cause could have been something as simple as static electricity during the blending operation.
If
Ammunition testing resumes at deadly RDM blast site
More at: https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/...g-resumes-at-deadly-denel-blast-site-20180910
More at: https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/...g-resumes-at-deadly-denel-blast-site-20180910
Hosehead
Executive Member
For at least a hundred years accidents have occurred on that site which in 1920 was DeBeers mining explosions manufacturing
There’s a source in today’s Argus who claims that many tragedies have occurred and many schoolchildren lost family members over the years
So very sad despite the safeguards currently in place. It’s a very dangerous and unpredictable livelihood.
There’s a source in today’s Argus who claims that many tragedies have occurred and many schoolchildren lost family members over the years
So very sad despite the safeguards currently in place. It’s a very dangerous and unpredictable livelihood.
Seems it happened at N16. I worked in that building as a supervisor briefly back in 1983.The work was incredibly physical and dirty and production pressure was enormous, my heart goes out to the families of the people who died there. Some of the surnames are familiar, quite possibly descendants of the guys I knew back then. RIP
https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/new...ke-weeks-to-figure-out-what-happened-16975380
Cape Town - The government says it is, for now, impossible to establish what happened at last week’s explosion at a munitions plant in Somerset West that killed eight people, and it could take authorities weeks, if not months, to come to a conclusion.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan visited the company site at Macassar where he and the Rheinmetall Denel Munitions (RDM) chief executive Norbert Schulze addressed the media on what could have happened at the N16 propellant room.
According to the company, five types of explosive propellant were being mixed “disintegrated” in the blast.
The men who died were busy unloading the explosive propellants.
Schulze explained the process: from raw materials different explosive materials are mixed together as a dough in the first building; the dough is extruded through a machine and cut into grains; the grains are dried; the grains are mixed according to clients’ specifications. It was at this stage where the explosion occurred; and the final building is a magazine where the charges are stored before being exported.
Gordhan said: “It is impossible to say how and what happened at the site. We don’t know what triggered the fire or explosion because there is very little evidence. The building was destroyed, but the police, Department of Labour and an independent investigator is on site.”
Schulze said the workers in all likelihood would have been mixing about a ton of the propellant. It would have ignited in milliseconds, he said.
“Usually we talk about ignition like burning but this was a detonation. We have no idea what caused this detonation. There was ‘hardly any evidence left’ to help with the investigation which would be a complicated process” he said.
The building is about 50m² in size and a maximum of 11 people can be in the factory at a time.
“There are normally three supervisors in the factory. Everyone gets a name badge and no one can go in there alone or without authorisation. It is always a team that goes in there,” Schultz said.
The 400 buildings at the Macassar factory were all contained by blast walls to prevent an explosion from causing a chain reaction, he said.
The company said the Macassar site was safe. “This is because RDM defines and calculates ‘explosive circles’ which means that buildings are spaced, so that if an incident does occur it cannot affect other people or another building.
“The size of the circle is determined by the operations within the building and RDM adheres to the national and international standards which make provision for the circle to include a maximum possible affected area.
“All circles are within RDM’s premises, so any possible effect is limited to the perimeter of the site. The surrounding communities could therefore not be affected by any such incidents,” the company said.
https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/new...ke-weeks-to-figure-out-what-happened-16975380
Cape Town - The government says it is, for now, impossible to establish what happened at last week’s explosion at a munitions plant in Somerset West that killed eight people, and it could take authorities weeks, if not months, to come to a conclusion.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan visited the company site at Macassar where he and the Rheinmetall Denel Munitions (RDM) chief executive Norbert Schulze addressed the media on what could have happened at the N16 propellant room.
According to the company, five types of explosive propellant were being mixed “disintegrated” in the blast.
The men who died were busy unloading the explosive propellants.
Schulze explained the process: from raw materials different explosive materials are mixed together as a dough in the first building; the dough is extruded through a machine and cut into grains; the grains are dried; the grains are mixed according to clients’ specifications. It was at this stage where the explosion occurred; and the final building is a magazine where the charges are stored before being exported.
Gordhan said: “It is impossible to say how and what happened at the site. We don’t know what triggered the fire or explosion because there is very little evidence. The building was destroyed, but the police, Department of Labour and an independent investigator is on site.”
Schulze said the workers in all likelihood would have been mixing about a ton of the propellant. It would have ignited in milliseconds, he said.
“Usually we talk about ignition like burning but this was a detonation. We have no idea what caused this detonation. There was ‘hardly any evidence left’ to help with the investigation which would be a complicated process” he said.
The building is about 50m² in size and a maximum of 11 people can be in the factory at a time.
“There are normally three supervisors in the factory. Everyone gets a name badge and no one can go in there alone or without authorisation. It is always a team that goes in there,” Schultz said.
The 400 buildings at the Macassar factory were all contained by blast walls to prevent an explosion from causing a chain reaction, he said.
The company said the Macassar site was safe. “This is because RDM defines and calculates ‘explosive circles’ which means that buildings are spaced, so that if an incident does occur it cannot affect other people or another building.
“The size of the circle is determined by the operations within the building and RDM adheres to the national and international standards which make provision for the circle to include a maximum possible affected area.
“All circles are within RDM’s premises, so any possible effect is limited to the perimeter of the site. The surrounding communities could therefore not be affected by any such incidents,” the company said.