Doornfontein explosion: Mystery flammable liquid tanks and cylinders found [VIDEO]

Johannesburg Emergency Management Services (EMS) attend to a collapsed building in Doornfontein, Johannesburg, 2 February 2026. Three people were injured and taken to a nearby hospital when a transformer reportedly exploded at around 5am in a storage room adjacent to the building. Picture: Michel Bega/The Citizen Johannesburg’s Executive Mayor Dada Morero on Wednesday visited the New Doornfontein building explosion site as part of the City’s High Impact Accelerated Service Delivery operation in the Inner City.

The incident severely disrupted power supply to areas serviced by the Siemert Substation, prompting a comprehensive investigation into the cause. City Power Chief Operating Officer Charles Tlouane accompanied Morero during the site inspection, where technical teams conducted a detailed assessment of the electricity infrastructure. Their findings have shifted the investigation’s focus away from electrical equipment failure.

“Under the current conditions, we noticed that the ground-mounted transformer inside the building is intact and has not exploded. This is a transformer with oil inside, and there was no failure and no oil expelled during this incident. The transformer also remains in its original position,” Tlouane said.

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The technical evidence gathered at the scene contradicts initial assumptions about the transformer’s role in the explosion. Tlouane explained that the scale and nature of the damage observed does not align with typical transformer failures. “Based on our electrical experience, we do not believe that this transformer could have caused the explosion, and threw debris so many meters away, breaking even windows of adjacent buildings.

Under normal circumstances, when a transformer fails, the fire is localised and is accompanied by oil spillage. In this case, there is no such evidence,” he added. During the inspection, City Power teams identified several items near the transformer that could explain the magnitude of the explosion.

These findings have become central to the ongoing investigation. “Behind the transformer, we found tanks located on site. We also found a generator next to the ground-mounted transformer, as well as a tanker and several pumps and pipes for different purposes.

At this stage, we do not know what the tanker and cylinders are used for or what kind of liquid they contained, only signage written ‘flammable liquid’,” he said. The evidence suggests that an external factor amplified the incident beyond what a transformer malfunction would typically cause.

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