Qualla: Boksburg explosion https://qualla.com/boksburg-explosion en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:25 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/k/e/k/4/boksburg-explosion-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Boksburg explosion https://qualla.com/boksburg-explosion Boksburg explosion: Introduction https://qualla.com/boksburg-explosion/ Photo credit Arrie89M, CC BY-SA 4.0. It was Christmas Eve, and the tanker should never have been on that street. The driver had taken a wrong turn while hauling 60,000 liters of liquefied petroleum gas from Richards Bay toward Botswana, and the route he chose to correct it carried him under a low railway bridge on Hospital Street in Boksburg, barely a hundred meters from the Tambo Memorial Hospital. The truck stuck. Gas began to leak, then to burn. A crowd gathered to watch the spectacle of the fire, the way crowds do. At about half past seven that morning, the fourth and largest explosion tore through them. It was felt as a tremor four kilometers away. By the time the toll settled weeks later, 41 people were dead, and many of them had been doing nothing more than their jobs, or trying to move a car.

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]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/e/k/4/boksburg-explosion-wp/kek4-boksburg-explosion-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Boksburg explosion: The Hospital Next Door https://qualla.com/boksburg-explosion/ Photo credit Arrie89M, CC BY-SA 4.0. The cruelest detail of this disaster is who died and where. Tambo Memorial Hospital stood almost beside the bridge, and the people inside it had no warning that mattered. Eight hospital staff, seven nurses and a driver, were killed in the carpark. At least one of them died trying...

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]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/e/k/4/boksburg-explosion-wp/kek4-boksburg-explosion-the-hospital-next-door.mp3 0:06 2 full Boksburg explosion: Of the Forty-One https://qualla.com/boksburg-explosion/ Photo credit Arrie89M, CC BY-SA 4.0. Of the dead, 23 were members of the public and 11 were health workers from the damaged hospital. Eight died immediately or before paramedics could reach them; the rest succumbed later in hospital beds. Two more people who had been near the blast were still listed as missing days ...

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]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/e/k/4/boksburg-explosion-wp/kek4-boksburg-explosion-of-the-forty-one.mp3 0:06 3 full Boksburg explosion: The Response https://qualla.com/boksburg-explosion/ Photo credit Arrie89M, CC BY-SA 4.0. Help came first from the people closest at hand: local security companies, the community policing forum, and volunteer groups. Investigators later found that early calls to emergency services went unanswered before the fire department finally picked up, and that police did not re...

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]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/e/k/4/boksburg-explosion-wp/kek4-boksburg-explosion-the-response.mp3 0:06 4 full Boksburg explosion: No One to Blame, No One Accountable https://qualla.com/boksburg-explosion/ Photo credit Arrie89M, CC BY-SA 4.0. The driver survived with only minor injuries. He was arrested the next day on charges including culpable homicide, but the deputy provincial police commissioner soon declared the arrest unlawful, since South African law required an investigation into intent before any arrest. The...

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]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/e/k/4/boksburg-explosion-wp/kek4-boksburg-explosion-no-one-to-blame-no-one-accountable.mp3 0:06 5 full