Massive Fire Kills 73 People in South Africa
- AP Photo/Jerome Delay.
Johannesburg – At least 73 people have died after a massive fire in the Johannesburg city, South Africa including seven children.
The fire broke out in the city in the early hours of Thursday morning, around 1.30 a.m. local time and the flames ripped through a five-storey building, said to have been used by homeless people, in the country's largest city.
Despite the response of Johannesburg Emergency Management Services, over 70 people were sadly killed and another 52 are known to be injured. Of the seven children who died, the youngest was 18-months-old.
Pemadam kebakaran berada di lokasi kebakaran gedung di kota Johannesburg, Afrika Selatan.
- AP Photo.
Alongside this, with the search and rescue operation ongoing officials only expect the death toll to keep rising and more people might be trapped inside.
Those hurt were rushed to hospital after being evacuated from the building by firefighters and rescuers who are now searching "floor by floor" to recover bodies.
The cause of the devastating fire is not yet known, but it was said to have happened in a “hijacked” inner city building - a term used in South Africa to refer to a building illegally taken over by homeless people.
Strings of sheets and other materials also hung out of some of the windows. It was not clear if people had used those to try and escape the fire or if they were trying to save their possessions.
The inside of the building was actually an "informal settlement" where shacks and other buildings were torn down, and people were crammed into rooms.
"There were "obstructions" everywhere that would have made it difficult for residents to escape the deadly blaze, and prevented emergency crews from working at the site," said Johannesburg Emergency Services Management spokesman Robert Mulaudzi.
"Search teams found 73 bodies. The likelihood of someone being found alive hours after the fire broke out is very small,"
City officials said 141 families were affected by the tragedy, although they could not immediately say how many people were in the building at the time of the fire. Many of them are believed to be foreign nationals.
A witness who did not give his name told television news channel eNCA that he lives in the building next door and heard people screaming for help, and shouting We are dying here as the fire broke out.
Meanwhile, Mgcini Tshwaku, a local government official, said that there are indications that people lit fires in the building to keep warm in winter. Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire.
After the fire was extinguished, smoke was still seeping out of the blackened windows of the building at dawn.
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