South Africa: Johannesburg building fire kills 73

An overnight fire in a multi-story building in Johannesburg has left dozens of people dead, Emergency Management Services spokesman Robert Mulaudzi confirmed on Thursday. 

On the social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, Mulaudzi reported that 73 bodies had been recovered while 52 other people were injured.

Mulaudzi told television channels that some bodies were burned beyond recognition. The youngest victim was less than two years old, he said.

Search and rescue operations are still taking place and the death toll could rise further, as the floor-by-floor search for bodies progresses.

What do we know about the fire in Johannesburg?

Initially, 10 people were confirmed dead in the early hours of the morning. However, the official death toll increased rapidly as further bodies were recovered.

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#JoburgUpdates Firefighters , @CityofJoburgEMS are currently attending to a building on fire in the Joburg CBD corner Delvers and Alberts street .Ten people confirmed dead and multiple patients treated on scene transported to various health care facilities for further medical… pic.twitter.com/OZTrajIbAq

— City of Joburg (@CityofJoburgZA) August 31, 2023 >

Multiple patients were being treated on the scene and transported to various health care facilities, officials said.

An official said some bodies were found piled up at a security gate that was closed, preventing people escaping from the flames.

It was not immediately clear what started the fire, which could end up being one of the worst disasters of its kind worldwide.

Details from the scene

Television footage showed fire trucks and ambulances outside the cordoned-off red and white building with burned-out windows.

Strings of sheets hung out of some of the windows, authorities said.

They were not sure if people had used those sheets to try and escape the fire or to save their possessions. 

Witnesses present at the scene said as many as 200 people might have been living in the building, located in a deprived area of South Africa's largest city.

The building was an "informal settlement" where homeless people took shelter without any lease agreements, according to Mulaudzi.

One resident told AFP news agency that most of those living in the building were non-South African nationals.

Illegal subdivisions

Speaking on DW-TV, DW correspondent Dianne Hawker said the fact that the building had likely been "hijacked" by illegal landlords and then converted without official permission meant that authorities might have found it difficult "first to access amd also to move about the building."

She said that there "might also be closures to entrances or exits that they would not be aware of."

Johannesburg has widespread poverty, joblessness and a housing crisis. It has about 15,000 homeless people, according to Gauteng's provincial government.