An employee of Stainless Engineering based in Walvis Bay suffered severe burn injuries last Friday when one of the empty fuel compartments of a fuel tanker truck exploded at the company’s workshop as welding work was being carried out inside the tank.

Blue Hafuka has since been transferred to a Windhoek hospital with second degree burn injuries to both arms and legs, the Managing Director of Stainless Engineering, Gerrit van Wyk, confirmed. The incident follows only a day after a two year old boy was tragically killed in a house fire in Walvis Bay’s Narraville suburb.Van Wyk explained that all safety precautions had been adhered to, including rinsing the tank’s interior with a soap water mix three times and even cleaning adjacent fuel compartments to prevent fumes from leaking into the damaged compartment which could spark an explosion. The company also claims to have utilised electronic gas detection equipment which indicated the tank to be safe.In the absence of the findings of a formal report, it is now only suspected that as Hafuka started with welding work, a massive explosion occurred ripping his clothes from his body and inflicting serious burn injuries. The worker was fortunately wearing an oxygen mask at the time and this prevented him sustaining any facial burn injuries.

Meanwhile, a group of children from several pre-primary schools in Narraville conducted an informal wreath-laying ceremony on Monday morning to pay respects to two-year old, Keegan Herbert. The deceased boy’s maternal grandmother, Estelle Langenhoven, also sustained serious burn injuries while trying to rescue the baby from the inferno and is currently in a very serous yet stable condition in the burn unit of a Windhoek hospital.
Quoting from Psalms 23, teachers of the pre-primary schools reminded children that God never abandons His children, not even in their darkest hour. Prayers also asked for consolation for the Herbert and Langenhoven families in their grief.
As the children one by one laid flowers at the window of the room where Herbert died, the deceased boy’s older brother found some consolation in his grandmother’s arms. In her expression clearly reflected the pain caused by the death of her grandson, as the community struggles to come to grips with their loss.
The hospitalised grandmother looked after her daughter’s two children last Thursday morning when at around 07h30 she was woken by a raging fire in the room where the children were sleeping. Langenhoven managed to save the oldest of the brothers and in the process sustained life-threatening injuries all over her body. Despite several attempts she could not save the two-year old Keegan and even the efforts of community members and the fire brigade were in vain.
Preliminary findings by the Walvis Bay Fire Brigade and an independent fire investigator point to electricity as the likely cause of the fire. It seems at this stage that the fire was caused by an electrical implement, like a bedside lamp that possibly set fire to combustible materials in its immediate vicinity like carpets, bedding and curtains. It soon changed the fire into a raging inferno causing death and destruction in a matter of minutes.