Durban - Pietermaritzburg residents have been breathing in a cocktail of dangerous chemicals after another toxic fire, at a plastic manufacturing factory, on Sunday afternoon.
This is the third such fire in just over a month in the city. The Msunduzi municipal landfill site caught fire twice last month, releasing toxic gasses and chemicals into the air for days.
Environmentalists described the fires as a “nightmare” for those living and working in the city, especially the elderly whose lung capacity was already deteriorating. In addition, a high number of residents had tested positive for Covid-19 which affected their respiratory system, groundWork’s environmental health campaigner Rico Euripidou said.
According to Msunduzi firefighters at the scene, they were called out to a grass fire in an open field at about 2pm. When they arrived, they found that the fire had spread to the nearby plastic manufacturing factory and storage warehouse.
Plumes of thick, black smoke billowing into the air could be seen from the suburbs of Northdale, Woodlands, Eastwood, Mountain Rise and Sobantu.
One firefighter, who asked not to be named, said “bags and bags” of plastic bottles burnt and the fire quickly spread to the roof.
“Due to the composition of the plastic, it made everything highly flammable. The fire hydrants nearby were not functioning, so the firefighters had to use hydrants that were quite a distance away,” he said. It took almost 20 firefighters about 10 hours to extinguish the fire.
One firefighter injured his leg and a number of firefighters suffered smoke inhalation.
“It was a very dangerous scene. The walls were falling and the high beams were bending,” he said.
Euripidou said the thick, black smoke indicated that the combustion process was incomplete which resulted in soot and particulate matter entering the air.
This, he said, travels deep into the airways and leads to respiratory symptoms, asthma, decrease in lung function, emergency department visits and hospital admissions for infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Euripidou said these fires could also release heavy metals and toxic chemicals such as dioxins and furans depending on the additives and colourants in the plastics.
“Other chemicals released while burning plastic include benzo(a)pyrene and polyaromatic hydrocarbons, which have both been shown to cause cancer. These chemicals were also present in the Pietermaritzburg landfill fire analysis we undertook at the time of the fire,” he said.
Euripidou added that the municipality and government structures had failed in broadcasting health advisories regarding Sunday’s fire to the public affected by the recent toxic fires in Pietermaritzburg and called for more to be done to safeguard the people living and working in the area.
Regarding Sunday’s fire, Msunduzi Municipality did not issue any health advisory, but only acknowledged that a fire had erupted at a factory containing plastic and equipment and that the incident happened a few kilometres away from the landfill site on New England Road.
“Regarding New England Landfill Site, we are encouraged by the positive response from a number of communities who are part of Love Pietermaritzburg initiative and the work that is being done on the site by the municipality.
“The ministerial committee appointed by Premier Sihle Zikalala to work on the New England Landfill Site will continue to work with all stakeholders to deal with air pollution,” municipal spokesperson Thobeka Mafumbatha said.
Environmental Affairs MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube said she had requested a formal report from environmentalists who had been on site on Sunday.
“Although I am still waiting for this formal report, I must hasten to point out that we won’t hesitate to take action against anyone found responsible for this air pollution,” she warned.
Dube-Ncube said that a comprehensive air quality strategy looking at the changes in the air quality before, during and after lockdown, was being developed and was expected to be completed by the end of October.
“I have asked - how do these changes impact the quality of the air we breathe, and, if maintained, how might that affect our overall health and well-being?
“I have further questioned - what lessons can we learn from this unique time period that will help us to better manage air pollution once traditional travel and company production resumes?” Dube-Ncube said.
She added that this strategy would be implemented across all municipalities. The department’s long-term plan was to ensure that leaders of society, academics, big corporations, elected public representatives and communities adopt a single strategy for implementation to deal with air pollution.
The Mercury