MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st July, 2023) Johannesburg authorities have identified three possible causes for a recent explosion in the city that partially collapsed a street and killed one person, with a gas leak being the most likely, City Manager Floyd Brink said on Friday.
On Thursday, local media reported an explosion in the South African capital that left a sinkhole in the road and overturned several vehicles. Later in the day, Johannesburg Emergency Management spokesman Robert Mulaudzi said one person died and 41 others were injured in the blast.
"Our preliminary investigation have presented us with three possible scenarios for the explosion. These are: ignition of methane gas in underground storm water systems due to sewage ingress, the second possibility that we have and consider is the ignition of natural gas mixed with air, which is oxygen in this case, in the underground storm water drainage system ... the third and the last possibility that we have is the ignition of gas from a gas pipe burst," Brink told a briefing.
At the moment, only the scenario of a gas leak ignited by an unknown source seems justified, he said, adding that the investigation will continue.
Commenting on the incident, Egoli Gas, an oil and gas company in Johannesburg, said that its gas network, which suffered the blast, had "experienced no pressure loss which indicates the gas pipelines are intact," expressing belief that the explosion was unlikely to be related to a leak.
