Nature takes a beating after chemical explosion in South Africa civil unrest

• News & Highlights

• Unknown quantities of toxic agricultural chemicals spilled into an estuary on the Indian Ocean following an arson attack on a warehouse during civil unrest and looting in South Africa in July.
• The fire burned for 10 days, exposing thousands of people to clouds of poisonous fumes and soot, with poor communication of the health risks to affected communities.
• Thousands of fish and other aquatic organisms were killed by a torrent of turquoise effluent that flowed from warehouse, which held as many as 1,600 different types of chemicals.
• The incident has exposed significant weaknesses in the regulation of hazardous installations, along with major flaws in emergency and pollution control response by South African authorities.

In the early hours of July 13, a group of unknown people set fire to a massive warehouse full of agrochemicals in the Cornubia area of Durban on South Africa’s east coast. The fire burned for 10 days, incinerating unknown quantities of hundreds of toxic chemicals in a smoke plume that extended across surrounding residential neighborhoods; firefighting efforts washed bright blue effluent into an adjacent river system, and thousands of riverine and marine creatures washed up dead in the Umhlanga Lagoon and beaches up to 9 kilometers (nearly 6 miles) away.