Building fire in Johannesburg kills 73

JOHANNESBURG — At least 73 people died when a nighttime fire ripped through a rundown five-story building in Johannesburg that was used by homeless people, emergency services said on Thursday.

Some of the people living in the building in South Africa's biggest city threw themselves out of windows to escape the blaze and might have died because of that, a local government official said. Seven victims were children, the youngest a 1-year-old, an emergency services spokesperson said.

Another 55 people were injured in the blaze, which broke out at about 1 am downtown, Johannesburg Emergency Management Services spokesman Robert Mulaudzi said.

Abandoned and broken-down buildings in the area are common and often taken over by people desperately seeking some form of accommodation. City authorities refer to them as "hijacked buildings".

He said the death toll was likely to increase and more bodies were likely trapped inside the building.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday called the fire "a great tragedy" and said he hoped an investigation would help prevent a repeat of the incident.

Obstructions everywhere

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 also hindered emergency crews trying to work through the site.

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

After the fire was extinguished, smoke seeped out of the windows of the blackened building as daylight broke. Strings of sheets and other material hung out of some of the broken windows. It was not clear if people had used those items to try and escape the fire, or if they were trying to save their possessions.

The Emergency Management Services will conduct preliminary investigations to determine what caused the fire after firefighting operations are done, said Mulaudzi.

Agencies - Xinhua