Braamfontein (F9)

Name:Braamfontein

Google count:94,800 for Braamfontein
Date: 16 August 2008

Historic fact:

Braamfontein explosion
...an enormous explosion took place on Wednesday, 16 February 1896. Ten railway trucks were loaded with 3 000 cases of blasting gelatine (about 80 tons).
That afternoon the load exploded, leaving a crater in the Braamfontein rail yard nine metres deep and 61 metres wide. The bang was heard about 40 kilometres away.

According to AP Cartwright in The Dynamite Company, it is not known how many people were killed in the blast. At the time it was estimated that 130 people died and 300 were injured. Some 3 000 people lost their homes and almost every window in the town was shattered.

"The unidentified dead were laid out in the hall of the Wanderers Club and President Paul Kruger, who had come from Pretoria at the first news of the disaster, looked at the bodies of the children and wept," writes Cartwright.

A commission of inquiry sat for days but no explanation was found. At first it was thought that the trucks had stood too long in the hot sun, and a nudge from the shunting engine had sparked the explosion.

But this was discounted after similar experiments of dynamite standing in the sun failed to explode. The commission concluded it was "cause unknown".

The commission found too that "during 1895, 78 men had been killed and 113 injured in blasting accidents in the mines", mostly caused by "carelessness in placing the charges or failing to recover unexploded cartridges". Anyone could obtain sticks of dynamite at the time, it seems.

As a result of the accident, more stringent regulations for the handling of explosives were promulgated. However, over the years there have been numerous accidents, the most recent in 1994 when an explosion killed eight people.

Modderfontein Museum
VISIT the Modderfontein Museum where there's a large collection of early artefacts used in the construction and running of the town, as well as a mini laboratory.

The museum is at 2 Main Street, Modderfontein. Hours are Mondays 10am to 2pm, Wednesdays 1.30pm to 4.30pm, and Fridays 10am to 2pm. Phone 011 606 3206 for further information.
http://www.joburgnews.co.za/2005/dec/dec13_modderfontein.stm

Braamfontein dynamite explosion - the explosion was on 19 February 1896.

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