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MEDIA STATEMENT: Update on Cornubia warehouse fire

Date: 31 Jul 2021 | Author: Corporate Media Statement

Tags: NA

Since UPL’s media statement of 19 July, additional issues of public concern have been raised which the company would like to address.

Since UPL’s media statement of 19 July, additional issues of public concern have been raised which the company would like to address.

 

During the late evening of 12 July and early hours of 13 July, the UPL Cornubia warehouse was vandalised and set on fire by looters connected with the general unrest that spread through the greater Durban area.

 

Reports suggest multiple fires were set, engulfing the warehouse in its entirety and resulting in the roof collapsing. The fire department’s initial response to the fire was delayed for a variety of reasons, including threats to the safety of their personnel and barricades that delayed access, and strained resources in dealing with the multitude of events at the time.

 

When the fire department was eventually able to attend to it, the fire was so advanced and in places covered by so much rubble and sheet metal from the destroyed warehouse that it took several days to access certain areas and extinguish the smouldering debris.

 

Many of the water-based products in the warehouse were atomised during the blaze, creating a dense plume of smoke and fumes that caused distress to many people in the neighbouring areas.

 

Because a significant volume of water was used to extinguish the fire, and due to the delayed response of the spill response cleaning services amid the ongoing unrest, the product that was not vapourised and the water from the fire operations overwhelmed the containment system and escaped into the environment.

 

Water contaminated by a combination of these products, including pesticides, ran down the stormwater system, surrounding platform, and down valley lines into the Ohlanga River, damaging plants and marine organisms in its path.

 

UPL immediately notified all the relevant authorities, once the extent and nature of the damage became known, and issued public advisories, based on the advice of its experts.

 

UPL also set in motion a containment strategy based on the advice of acknowledged experts and the work of two specialist firms. They are engaged in decontaminating the warehouse and river system. The Municipality closed the affected beaches and issued warnings about the harvesting of marine life in the vicinity.

 

The fire has been extinguished, and the containment process is continuing. Sampling is being conducted in all of the important water bodies, along with air sampling. The relevant national, provincial and local authorities are extensively involved in this work. UPL has been commended by them at a press briefing held on July 23 for its co-operation and effective responses to date.

 

A recording of that briefing can be found here: https://youtu.be/DDc0MksPl6o

 

Following its advisories to the appropriate authorities and the public, UPL’s immediate priority was to support the response teams in extinguishing the fire and preventing any further harm to the environment. This has required the intensive and urgent efforts of the senior staff of UPL to co-ordinate the work of its many consultants, and ensure that the emergency was contained and managed.

 

UPL was advised, prior to opening, that the leasing and operating of a warehouse for its products did not trigger an environmental assessment under the NEMA regulations. That advice has, since the fire, been confirmed by its legal consultants. In relation to the risk assessment requirements under the Major Hazardous Installation (MHI) Regulations, UPL took the view that its warehouse operation did not constitute an MHI and that it did not need to conduct a risk assessment. That view has now also been confirmed by its legal consultant.

 

The Cornubia warehouse was located in an appropriately zoned facility that, in the opinion of its technical staff and external consultants, was fit for purpose. The facility was equipped with the necessary infrastructure to manage incidents of the kind reasonably expected.

 

This facility involved no manufacturing of any kind. The products in the warehouse were all safely contained and packaged, and were overwhelmingly water-based, with little to low fire risk. The prospects of a cataclysmic fire, in the absence of the extraordinary circumstances that occurred in this instance, was extremely low.

 

The designed fire and containment systems were more than adequate, in ordinary circumstances, to have enabled the facility and the relevant authorities to contain a fire and any associated spillage of product.

 

UPL has shared all the required information with the relevant authorities and the company promptly made all the necessary statutory notifications. As part of its regular reporting, the company had kept the authorities informed about the nature of the products stored in the warehouse. All of the products in the warehouse were proprietary products approved for use in South Africa by the Health Department and by the Department of Agriculture in terms of Act No.36 of 1947.

 

UPL has been completely committed to speedily contain the spilled product, and to make all efforts to eliminate it from the environment. This may take some time, but no expense or expertise is being spared. UPL takes seriously its responsibility for its products, regardless of the fact that the event was entirely beyond its control.

 

UPL will continue to issue periodic updates on matters of public importance.

 

Any queries relating to the opening of beaches and other public areas should be directed to the authorities.

 

ENDS

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