By: Natasha Archary

The City of Johannesburg (COJ) have confirmed the CBD explosion which ripped through Lillian Ngoyi Street (Bree Street) was caused by gas.
This was confirmed by COJ officials during a technical media briefing on the preliminary findings of the investigation into the explosion in the inner city of Johannesburg on Wednesday afternoon, 19 July.
City Manager, Floyd Brink, who led the briefing said the source of the gas that was detected in the service duct is unknown, but investigations will continue over the next few days to locate the source.
Brink said technicians discovered an old gas line is the suspected cause of the explosion, and it’s said to be an Old Johannesburg Gas line.
It was unclear at this stage if the line was connected to Egoli Gas, and Brink said teams were still working on determining if this is the case.
According to Brink, Egoli Gas is shutting down the gas pipelines that run through the site of the explosion.
Buildings adjacent to the collapsed road have been inspected, and at this stage, no structural failure has been detected, and the buildings have been deemed structurally safe for occupation.
COJ have detailed an extensive supervision plan over the next 72-hours to monitor the site and have Johannesburg EMS on standby for any incidents which may occur.
NEXT 72 HOURS
— City of Joburg (@CityofJoburgZA) July 20, 2023
CM: As the City we have established a multi-disciplinary team that is working around the clock to secure the site, conclude investigations and restore services for residents in the area.
Immediate Actions being undertaken are as follows;
1.E-Goli Gas is…
Professional Engineer Johan Lagrange said once Egoli Gas has shutdown its gas pipelines, team will then be able to purge all the tunnels of gas to make sure levels are low enough.
Teams will then send in drones to look at the rest of the tunnels and determine the extent of the damage.
WATCH: Technical Update on #JoburgCBDExplosion 🚨
— City of Joburg (@CityofJoburgZA) July 21, 2023
Our team of experts has been tirelessly investigating the recent incident #JoburgCares ^NB pic.twitter.com/99DDhManhj
The gas explosion claimed one life on Wednesday, leaving 48 others injured when over 37 vehicles were impacted or overturned by the force of the blast.
There are concerns some people may be trapped under rubble from the collapsed road structures and search and rescue efforts will start once the gas levels are deemed safe.
Since the CBD explosion on Wednesday, there have been two other explosions in Johannesburg, one on Thursday afternoon, 20 July, in Bram Fischerville, Soweto which is due to suspected illegal mining.
The other, a hydrogen gas explosion at a private business in Chloorkop, Kempton Park on Friday afternoon.
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