Johannesburg apartment building fire kills dozens, South African officials say

The bodies of some victims were charred beyond recognition, rescue workers said, and DNA analysis would be used to try to identify them. Officials said a closed gate likely prevented some of the building’s 200 residents from fleeing.

Brink called the fire a tragic event and “one unprecedented given the number of lives lost.”

The cause of the fire was not yet known. But residents of the crowded building were known to have illegal water and electricity connections and to use fire for heat and light, officials said.

The building is an Apartheid-era heritage site owned by the city, Brink said. The city had leased it to a nonprofit organization to use as shelter for women and children, but by 2019 the group ceased operating and the building was “hijacked,” he said.

City officials last inspected the building during a 2019 raid in which they arrested about 140 foreign nationals illegally charging rent, Brinks said.

Johannesburg is one of the world’s most economically unequal cities, with a vast underclass suffering from poverty, unemployment and a lack of affordable housing. An estimated 15,000 homeless people live in Johannesburg, according to city’s estimates.

Photos of the scene Thursday morning showed blown-out apartment windows and bodies in the street covered with fabric.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to visit the site Thursday. He called the fire “a great tragedy felt by families whose loved ones perished in this awful manner” and expressed hope that the investigation into the deadly blaze would help prevent “a repeat of such a tragedy,” a statement from his office said.

“This incident calls on all of us, from the emergency services and other entities of government to community-based organisations, to reach out to survivors to help restore people’s physical psychological well-being and offer all material help residents may need,” this statement said.

Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of the Gift of the Givers Foundation, a nongovernmental organization, said it was not uncommon for people in the city to be living in such conditions.

“It’s not only about this building, it is about several buildings,” he said, noting that many people who live in the cramped, dangerous conditions come from countries such as Somalia, Zimbabwe and parts of Nigeria.

Buildings like the one that caught fire are generally considered physically unsafe, but many of those who live inside feel they are better off there than in their own countries, he said.

“The rules are not followed. There is no dignity,” Sooliman said, adding that people do not have the means to pay rent and find it difficult to get jobs in the area. “Locals are not happy with them being there.”

Many buildings in Johannesburg’s downtown were taken over by squatters after businesses left the central business district in the transition out of apartheid. The government has long grappled with what to do about them.

“If you take them out, where are you going to put them?” Sooliman said. Moving large groups of people would be costly and logistically challenging to a government already struggling with myriad issues, he said.

Tenants, landlords and governments all have a duty to ensure buildings are safe to live in, Sooliman said, but he added that he did not think Thursday’s tragedy would change the country’s bleak housing situation.

Sooliman said that the Gift of the Givers Foundation, the largest disaster response NGO of African origin on the continent, was taking food, water and energy drinks to firefighters as they worked to recover bodies from inside the building. The group will then work to support victims of the blaze.

A video shared by Mulaudzi to X, formerly known as Twitter, shows emergency services at the scene as people crowd the streets, some hoping for updates about the whereabouts of their loved ones.

Councilor Mgcini Tshwaku, a member of Johannesburg’s public safety committee, told local news outlet eNCA that one of the reasons for the high death toll was that there were “a lot of partitions” inside the building, such as an internal security gate that blocked people’s exit.

Tshwaku said many buildings like the one that caught fire have been declared unsafe and closed by officials. But this one, like others in the city’s downtown, was still inhabited.

A firefighter told local media Thursday that emergency services are asking residents not to return to the building to collect their belongings, as the structure is likely to be hazardous.

“When I woke up, I saw smoke in the house. I grabbed this child, and I ran out,” one resident told eNCA as she held a child. She said she did not know the whereabouts of her other three sons, who were also inside the building when the fire broke out.

Another mother told reporters at the scene that she was also searching for her child.

“The death toll is rising, and I am getting very anxious,” she said through tears. “I don’t know if my daughter is alive.”