Weary Durban fire fighters who have been hard at work at the Rossburgh fire are relieved Sunday after successfully managing to keep the flames from fertiliser and other highly flammable and explosive chemicals being stored in an unaffected part of the warehouse which caught alight on Friday.
Strong winds on Friday had helped fuel the raging inferno, leaving officials extremely worried it might reach the hazardous chemicals, which include ammonium.
The fire has been burning in a section where wax was stored and the current plan was to let the wax burn out.
eThekwini fire chief, Enoch Mchunu, said the firefighters made steady progress during the day on Saturday.
"We'd like to assure our communities that there is no need to panic. There are no indications that there are concentrations of pollutants on the ground, however we'll continue to monitor the situation," he said.
Transnet meanwhile said that it had put together its own team to probe the cause of the massive fire at its Rossburgh warehouse.
Late Saturday, Disaster Management said firefighting crews had successfully seperated the hot zone from the hay bales and ammonium in the unburned part of the warehouse.
Transnet's Molatwane Likhethe said they were relieved the inferno had been contained.
"Transnet has put together a team to get to the bottom of the incident. Only once the investigation is completed will be able to know what caused the fire and the extent of the damage as well," said Likhete.
He also confrimed that a Transnet worker who was hurt on Friday after the blaze broke out has been discharged from hospital.
