The Big News Story in Bloem Today [PHOTOS]

SHOOT: I came out of a the cinema at around 2pm and noticed a pall of smoke visible on the Eastern side of the city. After picking up some groceries the smoke had become a thick black column, rising like a a solid tunnel of ink into the clear, blue, Free State sky. On OFM someone reported the cause: a controlled fire in Estoire had consumed a large truck, and from there spread to other industrial equipment, including an oil depot and tyres. So I dumped my groceries, grabbed my camera and went to check it out. I had to get through quite a lot of police, and even a large class dressed in neon yellow learning how to fix potholes. I was blocked at the most obvious entrance, and the security guy could not get an answer to his boss who commanded not to let anyone through. I went through to a back entrance where three or four fire engines were gathered, trying to protect a building with a blue roof.
There may be a legal issue for the owner, because I doubt whether he had a license to keep reservoirs of oil on his property, for exactly the reasons that transpired today.