Explosion at petrol station causes serious injury
A man suffered third-degree wounds to his face and arms in an explosion at a substation close to a petrol station.
She noticed the lights flickering inside her office, then it went dark and a loud bang followed.
These strange events led Resme Ras – a manager at a petrol station on Voortrekker Road – to step outside where she noticed a large crowd of people.
“I found that the crowd was surrounding a severely injured man who had sustained burn wounds to his face and body,” she says.
Later it was revealed that the injured man in his early forties had been working on a substation near the petrol station on Friday (4 July) just before lunchtime when an explosion occurred.
“His clothes and skin caught fire and covered in flames he ran around in state of fear, “ says an eyewitness and employee of a neighbouring business.
“His face and hand were scorched and his skin started peeling off,” he says.
Employees from surrounding businesses used fire extinguishers to put out the flames on his body before paramedics arrived on scene.
Paramedics from Netcare 911 immediately started specialised burn treatment before the seriously injured man was airlifted to a nearby hospital, having suffered third-degree burns to his face and arms.
The explosion allegedly was caused by an electric fault at the substation.
