‘He fell as he tried to run from smell’ – family of Angelo gas leak victim
The family of a man who died while trying to escape the suffocating stench of the leaked nitric acid has described how he collapsed in the street and died.
Seventeen people died on Wednesday when alleged illegal miners were cutting the gas cylinder, which they use to sift the gold-bearing material when it began to leak.
Eyewitnesses described people falling to the ground while others coughed up blood.
Fifty-three-year-old Ricardo Macamo’s relatives came rushing to the Angelo informal settlement when they heard that people were dying after inhaling poisonous gas.
Ercilia Severiano said Macamo was with his partner when, what residents describe as the smell of ‘rotten eggs’, engulfed the area.
“He ran and collapsed over there…” she said as she pointed to the narrow, muddy passage before she broke down and cried.
Macamo’s wife was one of 11 people rushed to the nearby Tambo Memorial Hospital.
Relatives said she was inconsolable.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi corroborated this after he visited the hospital on Thursday morning.
“One female is on oxygen. We checked her, and she was awake and talking, but she was just worried about her husband.
“I think she received information that her husband had passed on. We asked the social workers to give the necessary support.”
READ: Lesufi: ‘Heartbreaking’ scenes at Angelo informal settlement
Meanwhile, Fernando Chiure said he lost four family members who stayed opposite the compound where the illegal miners worked with the deadly gas.
A total of seven people from that compound were reported to have died.
GALLERY: VICTIMS OF ANGELO INFORMAL SETTLEMENT GAS LEAK
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Chiure said he, too, collapsed when he inhaled the gas after trying to remove two people who were already unconscious.
“We tried to take two to load them into the car - when I tried to come back for others, the gas hit me, and I collapsed. I regained consciousness and just ran. I couldn’t return,” he said.
He’s asked for help to repatriate the bodies of his loved ones to neighbouring Mozambique, where they originate from.
The same call for assistance was echoed by Judite Manhica, from Inhambane, who lost her son and daughter-in-law, and Samaria Nyathemi, from Xai Xai, who lost her husband.
SYMPTOMS OF NITRIC ACID POISONING
When swallowed or inhaled, high concentrations of nitric acid can cause severe burning and pain in the respiratory system (mouth, throat, etc), difficulty breathing, a sudden drop in blood pressure, loss of vision, heaviness in the chest, fingertips and lips turning blue, dizziness, vomiting blood and loss of consciousness.
Anyone exposed to the lethal gas is advised to move away from the gas to where there is fresh air, and seek medical attention immediately.
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