Deadly fire rages at multi-storey building in Johannesburg
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South Africa president Cyril Ramaphosa said that the Johannesburg blaze that killed 74 people was ‘a wake up call’ for South Africa’s economic hub to address its inner-city housing crisis.
“This is a great tragedy felt by families whose loved ones perished in this awful manner, and our hearts go out to every person affected by this event.”
More than 200 people were living in the building that was ripped through a nighttime fire.
Families were also living in the basement, which should have been used as a parking garage, said witnesses. Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda said 141 families were affected by the tragedy but could not say exactly how many people were in the building when the fire started.
Some of the people living in a maze of shacks and other makeshift structures inside the building threw themselves out of windows to escape the fire – one of the worst in South Africa’s history. Officials say that 12 children are among the dead.
Searching for relatives
One woman told journalists she was outside the building searching for her 24-year-old daughter.
"As soon as I heard the building was burning down, I knew I had to run here to come and look for her," she said.
"Now that I'm here, I'm kept in suspense because I really don't know what is happening. I don't get any direction - so I'm actually very anxious, I don't know if my daughter is alive."
Fire took three hours to contain
The fire took three hours to contain and firefighters then needed a long time to work through all five floors, said Johannesburg Emergency Services Management spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi.
He said there were “obstructions” everywhere that would have made it very difficult for residents to escape the deadly blaze and which hindered emergency crews trying to search the site.
The chance of anyone else being found alive hours after the fire broke out was “very slim,” Mr Mulaudzi said.
Cyril Ramaphosa offers condolences over the accident
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has condoled the deaths in the Johannesburg fire. “This is a great tragedy felt by families whose loved ones perished in this awful manner, and our hearts go out to every person affected by this event,” she said.
A spokesperson for Mr Ramaphosa said he had offered the assistance of the national disaster management agency if needed, and the president later visited the scene having canceled last evening’s television address on the Brics economic summit held in Johannesburg last week.
Mr Ramaphosa called the fire devastating and a “wake-up call” for South Africa’s economic hub to address its inner-city housing crisis.“We are not here to blame anyone,” Mr Ramaphosa said outside the burned building. “This is a difficult lesson for all of us.”
In pictures: Search and rescue operation after blaze that killed 74
A group of private security guards gather near the entrance of a burned apartment block in Johannesburg on 31 August 2023
Private security guards patrol the scene of a fire in Johannesburg on 31 August 2023
A private security guard stands at the scene of a fire in Johannesburg on 31 August 2023
An officer of the South African Police Service (SAPS) climbs on an armoured personnel carrier as a private security guard stands near the entrance of a burned apartment block in Johannesburg on 31 August 2023
More than 140 families affected, say authorities
More than 200 people were living in the building that was ripped through a nighttime fire.
Families were also living in the basement, which should have been used as a parking garage, said witnesses.
Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda said 141 families were affected by the tragedy but could not say exactly how many people were in the building when the fire started. Many of the people inside were foreign nationals, he said. That could make identifying victims and tracing the missing hard as many were likely in South Africa illegally, other officials said.
A firefighter climbs a ladder as they extinguish a fire in an apartment block in Johannesburg on 31 August 2023
A woman who asked not to be identified said she lived in the building and escaped with her grown son and a two-year-old child. She stood outside holding the toddler for hours and said she didn’t know what happened to two other children from her family.“I just saw smoke everywhere and I just ran out with this baby only,” the woman said. “I don’t have any home, and I don’t know what to do anymore.”
Footage shows deadly fire raging at Johannesburg multi-storey building
Footage shows deadly fire raging at Johannesburg multi-storey building
A fire burning at a multi-storey building in Johannesburg on Thursday (31 August) has killed more than 50 people, city officials have said. Emergency Management Services spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi said 58 bodies had been recovered and 43 people had been injured, with search and recovery operations continuing on Thursday morning at the block on the corner of Delvers and Alberts street in Marshalltown. The building’s occupants were evacuated when firefighters arrived on scene, according to officials. It was not immediately clear what caused the fire.
Johannesburg: An unequal city with widespread housing crisis
Johannesburg remains one of the world’s most unequal cities with widespread poverty, joblessness and a housing crisis. It has about 15,000 homeless people, according to the Gauteng government.
Household fires are common in Johannesburg, especially in poor areas. One of the poorest townships, Alexandra, has seen hundreds of homes razed in several fires over the past five years.
A man looks on at a burned apartment block in Johannesburg on 31 August 2023
The city suffers from chronic power shortages during which many resort to candles for light and wood fires for heat. Authorities said the cause of the fire was still under investigation.
Lebogang Isaac Maile, the head of the Human Settlements department for Gauteng province said it “demonstrates a chronic problem of housing” in the province “as we’ve previously said that there’s at least 1.2 million people who need housing”.
Apartheid heritage building
Johannesburg officials initially suggested the building had been occupied by squatters, but Lebogang Isaac Maile, the head of the Human Settlements department for Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, said some of those who died may have been renting from, or were being extorted by, criminal gangs.
“There are cartels who prey on who are vulnerable people. Because some of these buildings, if not most of them, are actually in the hands of those cartels who collect rental from the people,” he told reporters.
City mayor Kabelo Gwamanda told reporters the municipality had leased it to a charity for displaced women but that it had “ended up serving a different purpose”. He did not give details.
A sign at the entrance to the block identified it as a heritage building from South Africa’s apartheid past, where Black South Africans came to collect their “dompas” - documents that would enable them to work in white-owned areas of the city.
Watch: South African president visit site of Johannesburg fire which killed more than 70
At least 60 injured in a blaze sweeping derelict building
More than 60 people were being treated for injuries after a fire ripped through a building in Johannesburg – one of the deadliest blazes in South Africa’s history.
Emergency services officials had earlier warned that the death toll could rise as they continued to search the scene.
Dozens of bodies recovered by firefighters were laid out on a side road outside the apartment block, some in body bags.
“Over 20 years in the service, I’ve never come across something like this,” Johannesburg Emergency Services Management spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi said.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMicmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmluZGVwZW5kZW50LmNvLnVrL25ld3Mvd29ybGQvYWZyaWNhL2pvaGFubmVzYnVyZy1idWlsZGluZy1maXJlLXNvdXRoLWFmcmljYS1tYXJzaGFsbHRvd24tYjI0MDMwOTAuaHRtbNIBAA?oc=5
2023-09-01 07:03:47Z
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