Sugar mill fire in Komatipoort flares up again
Since Sunday, the helicopter has dropped more than 400 loads of water onto the storage warehouse. One load consists of 2 500 litres.
The fire that started at the storage warehouse at the Komati Sugar Mill on Tuesday October 5 at 02:00 has flared up again, and firefighters have been battling since Sunday October 10 to try and douse the flames.
The fire departments of Nkomazi and Mbombela have been trying to control the blaze since it started flaring up again. Throughout the week, the blazing heat kept resurrecting it and the Lowveld & Escarpment Fire Protection Association (Lefpa) had to ensure an operational plan to permanently extinguish it.
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André Scheepers, the fire coordinator and manager of Lefpa, and Frits Koekemoer of Nkomazi Security Solutions are ensuring that all operational plan procedures are being followed at the mill.
A Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter of Leading Edge Aviation has been contracted by Lefpa to drop thousands of litres of water onto the fire. Since Sunday, the helicopter has dropped more than 400 loads onto the storage warehouse with one load consisting of 2 500 litres.
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More than 120 loads of water have been dropped onto the fire today to prevent it from flaring up again. According to Scheepers, the plan was to drop loads onto the blaze until 15:00 and then to use foam to cover the burned warehouse.
