Johannesburg building fire kills at least 73 people, many believed to be homeless

A nighttime fire ripped through a rundown five-storey building in Johannesburg that was occupied by homeless people and squatters early Thursday, killing at least 73 people, said emergency services in South Africa’s biggest city.

Seven of the victims were children, and the youngest was one year old, according to an emergency services spokesperson.

As many as 200 people may have been living in the building, witnesses said.

Emergency crews expected to find more victims as they worked their way through the building, a process slowed by the conditions inside. Dozens of bodies were lined up on a nearby side road, some in body bags, and others covered with silver sheets and blankets.

Another 52 people were injured in the blaze, which broke out after 1:30 a.m. in the heart of Johannesburg’s central business district, Johannesburg Emergency Services Management spokesman Robert Mulaudzi said.

Mulaudzi referred to the structure as a “hijacked building,” a term used for abandoned and broken-down buildings common in some areas that have been taken over by people desperately seeking some form of accommodation.

Colin Errakiah, deputy director for operations at Gauteng Emergency Medical Services, said 17 of those injured were transported to area hospitals, three who were suffering from critical injuries.

City of Johannesburg officials were scheduled to hold a news conference on Thursday afternoon.

Search of building not yet complete

Mulaudzi said the death toll was likely to increase and more bodies were likely trapped inside the building. The fire took three hours to contain, he said, and firefighters had only worked their way through three of the building’s five floors by mid-morning.

“This is a tragedy for Johannesburg. Over 20 years in the service, I’ve never come across something like this,” Mulaudzi said.

The building’s interior was effectively “an informal settlement” where shacks and other structures had been thrown up and people were crammed into rooms, 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 work through the site, according to Mulaudzi.

The chance of anyone being found alive hours after the fire broke out was “very slim,” Mulaudzi said.

Errakiah said the process of identifying some of the dead could be difficult and involve DNA testing and many of the deceased were “burned beyond recognition.”

City officials said 141 families were affected by the tragedy, although they were not able to immediately say how many people were in the building at the time of the blaze. Many of them were believed to be foreign nationals, officials said.

Mgcini Tshwaku, a local government official, said there were indications that people lit fires inside the building to keep warm in the winter cold.

Officials are looking into the cause of the blaze.

After the fire was extinguished, smoke still seeped out of windows of the blackened building as daylight broke. Strings of sheets and other material hung out of some of the broken windows.