Johannesburg fire – latest: South Africa president Ramaphosa says blaze that killed 74 people ‘a wake up call’
South Africa president Cyril Ramaphosa has said that the Johannesburg blaze that killed 74 people is “a wake up call” to address an 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,” he said.
More than 200 people were living in the building that was gutted by the blaze. Sniffer dogs searched the area on Friday.
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.
Key Points
Footage shows deadly fire raging at Johannesburg multi-storey building
Fire-hit building was homeless shelter housing more than 200
Trauma for families as they search for their relatives
15:16 , Chris Stevenson
We’re going to close the blog for this afternoon, thanks for following here.
You can read our full report here, or keep scrolling to catch up on the day’s developments as we reported them.
Identification of bodies
13:21 , Chris Stevenson
Thembalethu Mpahlaza from Gauteng province's Forensic Pathology Services said that only 12 of the 74 bodies they had recovered so far were identifiable by sight.
"I am devastated," block resident Wambali Kaunda, who lost his brother and niece in the fire, told Reuters.
"We have been told that if you are able to identify your family members, then you will be able to collect the bodies." He said he was on the first floor not far from the exit when the fire broke out, so managed to escape.
Sniffer dogs search area
12:55 , Chris Stevenson
Police with sniffer dogs searched on Friday through the gutted remains of a Johannesburg apartment block as authorities stepped up investigations into the cause of a fire that killed more than 70 people.
Officers cordoned off areas around the run-down five-storey building that was destroyed in a blaze in the early hours of Thursday in one of South Africa's worst such disasters in living memory.
Most of the bodies were burned beyond recognition and investigators would have to rely on DNA samples from friends and relatives to identify them, said.
12:26 , Chris Stevenson
In pictures: Johannesburg responds to worst fire in South Africa’s history
More than 70 people were killed when fire raged through a five-storey Johannesburg apartment block, one of the worst such disasters South Africa has seen.
Gutted, blackened by soot as emergency services gathered around it and bodies lay covered in blankets on a nearby street, the building stood in a rundown area.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said he hoped an ongoing investigation into the causes of the fire would help prevent a similar tragedy from occurring in the future.
Hundreds of fires
11:50 , Chris Stevenson
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.
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 this latest fire is still under investigation.
Johannesburg: An unequal city with widespread housing crisis
11:13 , Chris Stevenson
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.
‘Tragic loss of life'
10:38 , Chris Stevenson
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party says it is “saddened by the tragic loss of life” in Johannesburg.
“We urge law enforcement authorities to ensure that those responsible for this tragedy are held accountable,” it said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Social housing
10:06 , Chris Stevenson
Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda said officials would relocate people living "hijacked" buildings in the city, like the one consumed by the fire.
Since the end of apartheid in 1994, a housing crisis in Johannesburg has grown worse, as big businesses moved out of the inner city into affluent suburbs. Criminal syndicates in the 1990s and 2000s started "hijacking" buildings that were left empty and renting them out illegally.
The city will turn those buildings into social housing.
"We are not going there with brute force," he said, "we are trying to apply a sensitive strategy."
Searching for relatives
09:35 , Chris Stevenson
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
08:03 , Namita Singh
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
07:35 , Namita Singh
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
07:15 , Namita Singh
More than 140 families affected, say authorities
07:00 , Namita Singh
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 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
06:30 , Namita Singh
Footage shows deadly fire raging at Johannesburg multi-storey building
Johannesburg: An unequal city with widespread housing crisis
06:00 , Namita Singh
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.
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
05:30 , Namita Singh
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
05:00 , Namita Singh
Watch: South African president visits site of Johannesburg fire which killed 73
At least 60 injured in a blaze sweeping derelict building
04:30 , Namita Singh
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.
Report:
‘A great tragedy’: Fire kills at least 74 in Johannesburg building
Blaze in run-down Johannesburg apartment block kills scores
04:00 , Namita Singh
More than 70 people were killed overnight when a fire raged through a run-down, five-storey Johannesburg apartment block, one of the worst such disasters in a city where poverty, household fires and homelessness are widespread.
The building was gutted, blackened by soot and still smouldering on Thursday as emergency services gathered around it and bodies lay covered in blankets on a nearby street.
The block is owned by municipal authorities who, more than 12 hours after the blaze broke out, were still unable to provide a clear picture of who had lived there. One official said some rooms may have been rented out by criminal gangs in a so-called “hijacked building”.
“I saw a guy jumping from the fourth floor and he lost his life on the spot,” student Thando le Nkosi Manzini told Reuters.
Survivor Omar Arafat used his T-shirt to wipe away tears as he recounted losing his 21-year-old sister in the fire that he managed to escape.
“I broke the window ... and when I fell down, I was like ‘I am dead’,” he told Reuters, adding that another sister was in hospital and the family had lost all their possessions.
Thembalethu Mpahlaza, a provincial official for Forensic Pathology Services, said 74 bodies had been retrieved, 12 of whom were children and 24 of them women.
Johannesburg fire kills at least 74, including 12 children, as blaze sweeps derelict building
02:00 , Eleanor Noyce
At least 74 people have been killed and dozens more injured after a fire ripped through a building in Johannesburg – one of the deadliest blazes in South Africa’s history.
At least 12 of those killed were children, the youngest, a one-year-old, according to city and medical officials. They said an undetermined number of people were still missing and many bodies recovered were burned beyond recognition. The building had been abandoned but was being occupied by homeless people.
Some people threw babies out of third-floor windows to others waiting below in the desperate scramble to evacuate, witnesses said.
Gerald Imray and Mogomotsi Magome report from Johannesburg:
‘A great tragedy’: Fire kills at least 74 in Johannesburg building
74 bodies retrieved, including 12 children and 24 women
01:00 , Eleanor Noyce
Thembalethu Mpahlaza, a provincial official for Forensic Pathology Services, said 74 bodies had been retrieved, 12 of whom were children and 24 of them women.
Authorities earlier said more than 50 people were being treated for injuries.
“This is a great tragedy felt by families whose loved ones perished in this terrible manner,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in televised remarks. “I do hope that the investigations into the fire will ... prevent a repeat of such a tragedy.”
As Ramaphosa visited the site in the evening, cries of despair from relatives of the victims filled the air.
“It’s a wake-up call for us to begin to address the situation of housing in the inner city,” he said.
ICYMI: Footage shows deadly fire raging at Johannesburg multi-storey building
Friday 1 September 2023 00:01 , Eleanor Noyce
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.
Footage shows deadly fire raging at Johannesburg multi-storey building
Watch: South African president visits site of Johannesburg fire which killed more than 70
Thursday 31 August 2023 23:00 , Eleanor Noyce
Watch as Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, is expected to visit the site of the Johannesburg fire that killed more than 70 people on Thursday 31 August.
An emergency services spokesperson said another 52 people were injured in the fire that broke out at about 1am.
Some of the people living in a maze of shacks and other makeshift structures inside the building threw themselves out of windows in an attempt to escape the blaze.
Watch: South African president visits site of Johannesburg fire which killed 73
Victims identified from Malawi, Tanzania and South Africa
Thursday 31 August 2023 22:00 , Eleanor Noyce
Authorities identified two of the victims of South Africa’s worst fire in history as being from Malawi, two from Tanzania and “at least two more” from South Africa, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, a local health official, told The New York Times.
Some of the victims were so badly burned that officials will need to use DNA analysis to confirm their identities.
Johannesburg fire ‘demonstrates a chronic problem of housing’, says Human Settlements department head
Thursday 31 August 2023 21:00 , Eleanor Noyce
City Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda told reporters the municipality had leased the building to a charity for displaced women but that it had “ended up serving a different purpose,” without giving further details.
Lebogang Isaac Maile, the head of the Human Settlements department for Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, said some of those burned to death may have been renting from criminal gangs illegally collecting rent.
“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.
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 “dompass” - documents that would enable them to work in white-owned areas of the city. 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.
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. Maile said it “demonstrates a chronic problem of housing in our province, as we’ve previously said that there’s at least 1.2 million people who need housing.”
‘It was dark and there was smoke’, says survivor
Thursday 31 August 2023 20:00 , Eleanor Noyce
Leo, a 25-year-old who survived the blaze, had been living on the building’s second floor. He escaped along with his mother via the stairs.
“People were just running away. It was dark and there was smoke. You couldn’t see anything,” he said.
At least one person jumped to their death, said Thando le Nkosi Manzini, a student who saw the fire from the street. “I saw a guy jumping from the fourth floor,” he told Reuters.
In pictures: Johannesburg responds to worst fire in South Africa’s history
Thursday 31 August 2023 19:00 , Eleanor Noyce
More than 70 people were killed overnight when fire raged through a five-storey Johannesburg apartment block, one of the worst such disasters in a city where poverty, household fires and homelessness are widespread.
Gutted, blackened by soot and still smouldering on Thursday as emergency services gathered around it and bodies lay covered in blankets on a nearby street, the building stood in a rundown area.
It was owned by municipal authorities who, 12 hours after the blaze broke out, were still unable to provide a clear picture of who had lived there. One official said some rooms may have been rented out by criminal gangs.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said he hoped an ongoing investigation into the causes of the fire would help prevent a similar tragedy from occurring in the future.
Large number of building fires ‘unfortunate’, Johannesburg mayor says after deadly blaze
Thursday 31 August 2023 18:00 , Maanya Sachdeva
‘I know that people will be upset and fearful’, South Africa’s president says
Thursday 31 August 2023 17:33 , Eleanor Noyce
“Once again, condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives”, Cyril Ramaphosa told SkyNews.
“I know that people will be upset and fearful and those are issues that we’ve got to deal with, and we will deal with them.”
Accommodation ‘for 72 hours'
Thursday 31 August 2023 17:23 , Chris Stevenson
Johannesburg’s city manager, Floyd Brink, said 200 families had been affected, and "all efforts" were being taken to provide them with accommodation and social and psychological support.
Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda has said temporary accommodation is being provided to survivors of the deadly fire – but this will end after 72 hours.
"After 72 hours the Human Settlements department will advise on where they will be taken," Mr Gwamanda said in a statement, adding that there were logistical and verification issues at play.
Tears for relatives
Thursday 31 August 2023 17:08 , Chris Stevenson
Fire survivor Omar Arafat used his T-shirt to wipe away tears as he recounted losing his 21-year-old sister in the fire that he managed to escape.
"I broke the window ... and when I fell down, I was like 'I am dead'," he told Reuters, adding that another sister was in hospital and the family had lost all their possessions.
Witnesses recall people ‘throwing their babies out of burning building’
Thursday 31 August 2023 17:00 , Maanya Sachdeva
Some of the have survivors described how they jumped out of windows to escape the blaze, but only after tossing their children to others below.“Everything happened so fast and I only had time to throw the baby out,” said Adam Taiwo, who managed to save his one-year-old son and himself.
“I also followed him after they caught him downstairs.”
Taiwo said he did not know where his wife, Joyce, was.A witness who lives in a building across the road said he saw others also throw babies out of the burning building and that at least one man died when he jumped from a window on the third floor and hit the concrete sidewalk “head first.”As the fire raged, some occupants got trapped behind locked gates at the exits and it was clear there were no proper fire escape routes, local official Tshwaku said.“People couldn’t get out,” he said, adding that some of the victims may have died after jumping out of the building.
Scores killed as fire guts run-down Johannesburg apartment block
Thursday 31 August 2023 16:45 , Chris Stevenson
More than 70 people were killed overnight when fire raged through a five-storey Johannesburg apartment block, one of the worst such disasters in a city where poverty, household fires and homelessness are widespread.
Gutted, blackened by soot and still smouldering on Thursday as emergency services gathered around it and bodies lay covered in blankets on a nearby street, the building stood in a rundown area.
It was owned by municipal authorities. One official said some rooms were likely rented out by criminal gangs.
74 dead in building fire
Thursday 31 August 2023 16:31 , Chris Stevenson
A representative from the country’s health department says that 74 bodies – 24 women, 40 men, and 10 that they are unable to gender.
Among the 74 are 12 children, he says.
One of the victims died in hospital. So, 73 died on site, 74 have died in total.
Building raided in 2019
Thursday 31 August 2023 16:16 , Chris Stevenson
Johannesburg’s city manager Floyd Brink, says that city officials raided the building which is the scene for the fire in October 2019. Around 140 foreign nationals were arrested for illegally collecting rent from tenants in the building, he said.
This happened just months after illegal occupants took over the building, which had been a shelter for women and children.
What are ‘hijacked’ buildings?
Thursday 31 August 2023 16:12 , Chris Stevenson
Since the end of apartheid in 1994, a housing crisis in South Africa's largest city of Johannesburg, in Gauteng province, has grown worse, as big businesses moved out of the inner city into affluent suburbs. Criminal syndicates in the 1990s and 2000s started "hijacking" buildings that were left empty and renting them out illegally.
In some instances, the syndicates occupied buildings with fraudulent title deeds, said Angela Rivers, general manager at Johannesburg Property Owners and Managers Association.
At least 1.2 million people in the province are homeless, a provincial official said on Thursday. Rivers said she was aware of 57 known hijacked buildings in the Central Business District alone, mostly owned by the city or the provincial government.
Experts say such buildings are prone to hijacking as they are badly managed with little access to amenities such as running water and electricity.
‘Diligent’ investigation
Thursday 31 August 2023 16:09 , Chris Stevenson
Johannesburg’s city manager Floyd Brink says the city will gladly accept help from the private sector – including NGOs and other private buildings – to deal with the disaster.
He says officials "will do our best to act diligently" in investigating the fire, and to regain control of illegally occupied buildings in the city.
Firefighters ‘on site within 10 minutes'
Thursday 31 August 2023 16:04 , Chris Stevenson
Johannesburg’s city manager Floyd Brink says that firefighters were first alerted to the fire at 1:19am, and the first responders were on site 10 minutes later.
As of 2pm today, he said, 61 people have been treated in hospitals around Johannesburg.
Major says disasters in city ‘end today'
Thursday 31 August 2023 16:01 , Chris Stevenson
Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda says that the government must take measures to "ensure that we do not experience the same situation again".
He says that the series of tragedies and disasters Johannesburg has suffered "ends today"
Officials express sorrow at fire
Thursday 31 August 2023 15:57 , Chris Stevenson
In a press conference about the fire, Johannesburg's mayor Kabelo Gwamanda begins by extending his condolences to the families of those who died, and said that "we share the pain of those that have suffered grave injury".
He says local officials "truly understand the gravity of the situation that has befallen our city".
Footage shows deadly fire raging at Johannesburg multi-storey building
Thursday 31 August 2023 15:00 , Maanya Sachdeva
A fire burning at a multi-storey building in Johannesburg on Thursday (31 August) has killed more than 73 people, city officials have said.
The building’s occupants were evacuated when firefighters arrived on scene, according to officials.
It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, as president Cyril Ramaphosa said he hoped an investigation would help prevent “a great tragedy” like this from happening again.
Footage shows the deadly fire raging at the apartment building:
Survivors recall escaping the blaze that killed 73: ‘You couldn’t see anything’
Thursday 31 August 2023 14:00 , Maanya Sachdeva
Leo, a 25-year-old who survived the blaze, had been living on the second floor.
He escaped along with his mother via the stairs.
“People were just running away. It was dark and there was smoke. You couldn’t see anything,” he said.
At least one person jumped to their death, said Thando le Nkosi Manzini, a student who saw the blaze from the street. “I saw a guy jumping from the fourth floor,” he told Reuters.
The blaze, which started at around 1.30 am on Thursday, killed at least 73 people and injured 43, the municipal government said, in one of South Africa’s worst such tragedies in living memory.
South African president Ramaphosa says Johannesburg fire deaths ‘a great tragedy’
Thursday 31 August 2023 13:30 , Maanya Sachdeva
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday called the more than 70 deaths in an apartment fire in Johannesburg “a great tragedy” and said he hoped an investigation would help prevent a repeat of the incident.
Thursday 31 August 2023 13:00 , Maanya Sachdeva
Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda has reportedly said more than 300 families displaced by the apartment fire, that killed 73 people, will be allocated accommodation “irrespective of nationality”.
According to a report by South African newspaper TimesLIVE, Mr Gwamanda said: “There will be social relief. We have already identified three buildings that the surviving victims will be allocated to.
“We have agreed that we are not going to deal with people on the basis of nationality. At this point, everyone who is affected will be given humanitarian assistance.
“This is a tragedy that affects people, irrespective of nationality.”
‘Vulnerable’ fire victims may have rented building rooms from criminal gangs
Thursday 31 August 2023 12:30 , Maanya Sachdeva
Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda told reporters the building that was devastated by a huge fire on Thursday was owned by the municipal authorities and had been leased to charity for displaced women but had “ended up serving a different purpose,” without giving further details.
Lebogang Isaac Maile, the head of the Human Settlements department for Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, later said some of the victims may have been renting from criminal gangs illegally collecting fees.
“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 at the scene.
At least 73 people were killed in the fire and officials said the death toll could rise, as the search for more bodies continues.
‘I don’t know what happened to my brother’
Thursday 31 August 2023 11:30 , Maanya Sachdeva
A young girl, who is still searching for her brother in the aftermath of the Johannesburg building fire, told a local newspaper she’s scared because she doesn’t know what happened to him.
Jiya Mcreen told South African newspaperTimesLIVE her brother lived in the building with three other friends but her brother’s phone has been switched off since this morning and she can’t reach him.
“I am scared, I’m feeling fear. I don’t know what happened to my brother.”
What we know so far about the devastating fire that killed 73
Thursday 31 August 2023 10:58 , Maanya Sachdeva
If you’re just joining our coverage of the devastating building fire that erupted in Johannesburg early Thursday morning, here’s everything we know so far:
At least 73 dead in fire at multi-storey building in Johannesburg
Photos show firefighters working to extinguish deadly building blaze
Thursday 31 August 2023 10:41 , Maanya Sachdeva
Photographs coming in from the scene of the deadly building fire that killed at least 73 people in Johannesburg show people gathering to watch rescue efforts as firefighters tried to bring the blaze under control.
Seven of 73 known victims are children
Thursday 31 August 2023 10:30 , Maanya Sachdeva
Some of the people may have died after they threw themselves out of windows to escape the deadly blaze, a local government official said.
Seven of the 73 known victims were children, the youngest a one-year-old, according to an emergency services spokesperson.
Another 52 people were injured in the blaze in Johannesburg, which broke out in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday, Emergency Management Services said.
As many as 200 people may have been living in the building, witnesses said.
‘We’re dying in here'
Thursday 31 August 2023 10:19 , Maanya Sachdeva
A nighttime fire ripped through a rundown five-story building in Johannesburg that was occupied by homeless people and squatters, killing at least 73 people early Thursday.
A witness who didn’t give his name told television news channel eNCA that he lived in a building next door and heard people screaming for help and shouting “We’re dying in here” when the fire started.
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.
Watch: Mother searches for daughter as multiple fatalities in Johannesburg fire
Thursday 31 August 2023 10:09 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
A video captures a mother searching for her daughter after a devastating fire broke out in a building in Johannesburg this morning.
Watch live: Aftermath of deadly Johannesburg fire as at least 73 people killed
Thursday 31 August 2023 09:57 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
Watch live as firefighters gather in the aftermath of deadly fire in Johannesburg that killed at least 73 people on Thursday 31 August.
The blaze broke out inside a five-storey building in central Johannesburg on Thursday morning.
Watch live: Aftermath of deadly Johannesburg fire as at least 60 people killed
At least 73 dead in Johannesburg fire
Thursday 31 August 2023 09:32 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
The death toll from the Johannesburg building fire has now risen to 73, state broadcaster SABC has reported.
The search and recovery operation continues.
Death toll rises to 64, state broadcaster reports
Thursday 31 August 2023 08:56 , Maroosha Muzaffar
The death toll in the Johannesburg building fire has risen to 64, according to the city’s emergency services.
More bodies are expected to be discovered as the search and rescue operation continues to progress, according to state broadcaster SABC.
