Identity
Person No.
31108
Old ROH no.
715
Service No.
77334084BT
Last Name
First Name
Michael Sydney
Initials
M S
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
23
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
ACC 1,584
Accident
Cause of Death
Died in Freak Accident, when SAAF firemen were called to assist the Pretoria fire brigade in extinguishing a fire that had started at the SASOL Bulk Storage Depot in Pretoria West. When the tank exploded, 3 servicemen were burned to death
Military Service
Branch
Air Force
Rank
Airman
Regiment
Unknown
Unit
Defence Force
SADF 3,828
South African Defence Force
Location
Country
Locality
Grave Reference
Notes
Son of Mr. and Mrs. S. M. Knoetze
Research notes
25 Sep 2026, Unit2 service-branch sweep: the stored Secondary Unit "Air Force" was CLEARED as a duplicate. It was not a sub-unit, it was a service-branch word repeating what the Branch column already says. Secondary Unit is for sub-units -- a company, a squadron, a commando -- and this record's branch of service is unchanged at "Air Force".
Citations
Unknown
External References
-
SADF.info Border Roll of Honour
open source ↗
SADF.info Border RoH
- South African War Graves Project open source ↗
-
The War in Angola
open source ↗
War In Angola Roll of Honour (warinangola.com, tabid=1175), pages 57-65 of 143: confirmed, no changes.
Stories 1
In the early morning of 21/5/1985 the SAAF firemen were called to assist the Pretoria fire brigade in extinguishing a fire that had started in a nearby petrol depot . When the tank exploded , 3 national servicemen , including Donald Clench , were burned to death . All three firefighters served in the SWA/Border war, Amn Knoetze, L Cpl Clench, Sgt WJ Hawkins. Ren?
Dedications 2
I would like to contact Candice Knoetze. Her father served with Sgt. Hawkins and they both died in the Sasol Explosion along with Clench. Please contact me - 072 3011193 - WJ Hawkins Jnr Rene Ludick
My father Amn. C van den Heever was one of the fireman injured in the explosion Christiaan van den Heever