By Chris Chapman

NCT has never had a fire on their woodchip piles since the establishment of its operations in 1949. Then, the unexpected happened at 12.44 pm on the last day of September 2023.

A tiny wisp of smoke detected on chip pile number one signalled the start of a massive fire which raged for 10 days straight, destroying two huge chip piles, conveyors and infrastructure at NCT’s mill at Richards Bay. No matter how much resources they threw at the fire, it kept burning.

At the Fire Symposium, Rob Thompson described the harrowing events in graphic detail and said you can never be sufficiently prepared for such an event. It burnt a big hole in NCT’s forestry and wood processing value chain and affected multiple stakeholders.

On the positive side, it brought surrounding communities, businesses, and firefighting service providers together, boosting stakeholder collaboration and strengthening relationships, which bodes well for the future.

NCT has cleaned up, repaired and rebuilt, and the mill is now back in business. They have massively strengthened their firefighting preparedness at the mill.

NCT’s lessons learned from the fire:

• Properly understand your risks.
• Be well prepared – people, capacity, equipment.
• Ensure good command and control of the firefighting effort – one person cannot do it all.
• Have the right equipment and sufficient resources in the right places.
• As the battle rages, you need to have the personnel, the rations and the resources to sustain the fight until the fire is out, no matter how long it takes.
• Record everything that happens during the event, night and day.
• Predict where the fire is going and warn your neighbours.
• After the fire, reflect, regroup and strengthen your preparedness for the next fire.
• Share the learnings.

So what caused the fire?

Teams of investigators and forensic experts spent weeks sifting through the fire site to find the answer but could not pinpoint the exact cause.

Facts:

• Woodchip piles do not ignite easily.
• The chip pile equipment was not operating when the fire started, ruling out equipment failure.
• Adverse weather conditions (hot and windy) played a role, fanning and spreading the flames. The fire quickly got out of control.

Rob’s chilling conclusion: “It will happen again – be prepared!”