At least 73 people were killed early on Thursday morning in Johannesburg when a nocturnal fire tore through a dilapidated five-story building that was home to homeless people and squatters.
A local government official claimed that some of the residents of the abandoned building, who were crammed into a maze of shacks and other improvised homes, hurled themselves out of windows to escape the fire and may have perished in the process.
According to a witness, babies were thrown out of the flaming building in an effort to save them, and at least one guy died after jumping from a third-floor window and hitting the concrete sidewalk “head first.”
Witnesses claimed that up to 200 people may have been living in the structure, including in the basement, which was intended to be utilized as a parking garage.
Some people made much higher occupancy estimates. A one-year old was the youngest of the seven victims, according to a representative for the emergency services.
City officials could not pinpoint just how many individuals were in the building when the fire began, but they did state that 141 families were affected by the tragedy.
The officials claimed that a large portion of those there were foreign nationals. As they made their way inside the building, which was delayed by the conditions inside, rescue workers anticipated finding additional victims.
On a neighboring side road, dozens of bodies were lined up, some of them in body bags.
When the fire started at around one in the morning, another 55 people were hurt. according to Robert Mulaudzi, a spokesman for Johannesburg Emergency Services Management, in the center of the city’s commercial district.
A catastrophe for Johannesburg, I say. I’ve been in the military for over 20 years, and I’ve never encountered anything like this,” Mulaudzi added.
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