Key Points
- A fire ripped through a multi-storey building in Johannesburg, South Africa's capital.
- More than 70 people have died, including seven children, with several injured.
- Authorities said it is unclear what sparked the fire at the five-storey building.
More than 70 people have been killed after 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.
Dozens died when a fire ripped through a multi-story building in Johannesburg on Thursday. Source: AAP / Themba Hadebe/AP
Seven of the victims were children, the youngest a one-year-old, according to an emergency services spokesperson.
Officials said the number of people missing is unknown. Witnesses say as many as 200 people might have been living in the building, witnesses said.
'Hijacked building'
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.
Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda (centre) said a search and recovery operation was underway and it was likely the death toll would rise. Source: Getty / Michele Spatari/AFP
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.
'Never come across something like this'
Johannesburg Emergency Services Management spokesman Robert 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.
Local residents gather on the scene of a deadly blaze in downtown Johannesburg on Thursday. Source: AAP / AP
"Over 20 years in the service, I've never come across something like this."
President hopes investigation prevents future incidents
"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.
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 said some of those who died may have been renting from, or were being extorted by, criminal gangs.
"There are cartels who prey on those 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.
Mgcini Tshwaku, a local government official, said there were indications people lit fires inside the building to keep warm in winter.
Officials are looking into the cause of the blaze.
After the fire was extinguished, smoke still 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 used those items to try and escape the fire or if they were trying to save their possessions.
Building owned by municipality
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.
Johannesburg remains one of the world's most unequal cities with widespread poverty, joblessness and a housing crisis.
Fire marshals inspect the scene of a deadly blaze in downtown Johannesburg. The block is owned by municipal authorities. Source: AAP / Themba Hadebe
Household fires are common in Johannesburg, especially in poor areas.
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 the province "as we've previously said that there's at least 1.2 million people who need housing".
