South Africa Fire Updates: At Least 73 Dead in Johannesburg Building Blaze

The early-morning blaze tore through a five-story building that had become a sprawling informal settlement, officials said. The cause was not yet known.

John Eligon and Lynsey Chutel

At least 73 people were killed and dozens of others injured in Johannesburg on Thursday when a blaze tore through a building where squatters lived in dangerous conditions, city officials said, in one of the deadliest residential fires in South Africa’s history.

The authorities were still trying to determine what caused the blaze. It consumed a five-story downtown building that had become a dilapidated informal settlement where electric cables dangled in dark corridors and trash spilled from windows — a vivid illustration of a political crisis that has resulted in a severe lack of affordable housing in one of Africa’s most populous cities.

Officials said that many residents, including migrants from other African countries, lit fires for warmth and light, posing a deadly hazard. Mgcini Tshwaku, a Johannesburg city councilman who oversees public safety, said that when he arrived at the scene of the fire, people were jumping out of windows to escape.

By midmorning, the fire had been extinguished and firefighters were combing the structure floor by floor, searching for bodies. At least seven children were among the dead, according to the city’s emergency services.

Here is what else to know:

The blaze ranks among the deadliest residential fires in recent years. The toll already exceeds that of the 2017 fire at London’s Grenfell Tower, which claimed 72 lives.

Initial evidence suggests that the fire started on the ground floor, Mr. Tshwaku said, adding that a security gate had trapped many residents who were trying to escape. The building was one of more than 600 derelict structures in Johannesburg that are being illegally occupied, he said.

Journalists for The New York Times had visited the building in May while reporting for an article about the chaotic state of Johannesburg. They saw garbage sagging out of second-floor windows, a pile of trash partly blocking the entrance and a building so overcrowded that some squatters had erected tin shacks in the back lot.

Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda of Johannesburg said that the building was owned by the city, which had leased it to a nonprofit organization that provided emergency housing for women. But he said the nonprofit had subsequently abandoned its operations there.

Aaron Boxerman

Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, called the Johannesburg residential fire “a great tragedy felt by families whose loved ones perished in this awful manner.” Ramaphosa said he hoped investigations would lead to punishment for anyone deemed criminally responsible and help prevent similar disasters.

Joao Silva

Bystanders gathered down the street from the apartment complex on Thursday, waiting for news on those still missing, and for more information on what started the fire.

John Eligon

The building that caught fire in downtown Johannesburg on Thursday morning was one of more than 600 derelict buildings in the city that are being illegally occupied — or “hijacked,” as locals say — according to Mgcini Tshwaku, the Johannesburg councilman who oversees public safety.

About 30 of the buildings are owned by the city, while the rest are privately owned, he said in an interview.

This year, Mr. Tshwaku started a program to inspect such buildings and work to get residents out because of the dangerous living conditions. City inspectors had recently visited the building where Thursday’s fire occurred, he said, and found conditions similar to those of other structures that are considered risky.

Many lack fire escapes, extinguishers and sprinklers, he said, and they often have no running water, electricity or working bathrooms. Residents light fires for warmth and light, and that can easily lead to deadly fires, he said.

Preliminary evidence suggests that the fire on Thursday started on the ground floor, Mr. Tshwaku said. A security gate trapped many residents who were unable to escape, he added.

The operation to clear illegal buildings has inspected 14 of them, Mr. Tshwaku said. One challenge, he said, is that the city lacks the resources to provide alternative housing for people it evicts, as it is required to do by law.

Mr. Tshwaku said the city was trying to speak to tenants of dilapidated buildings individually to determine their needs. When residents can afford a place on their own, city officials work to help them find somewhere to go, he said, and that has helped reduce the number of people who have had to be placed into shelters or other housing.

Lynsey Chutel

Ethel Jack spent hours searching for signs of her brother, Kenneth Sihle Dube, after her family got word from a neighbor that the building where he lived was on fire.

A relative who worked nearby had rushed to the burning building. Then Ms. Jack arrived, just before 8 a.m. She saw bodies, covered with foil blankets and lined up in the street, awaiting collection.

She spotted her brother’s neighbor, who had burns on her face and was shaken and crying. In the chaos, the neighbor had not seen Mr. Dube.

Ms. Jack’s daughter went to hospitals in the city to look for him. In the meantime, Ms. Jack, 60, kept her gaze on the window of his fourth-floor room, hopeful that the dishes still stacked by the window were a sign that his home had been spared the worst of the fire.

Her brother, in his late 40s, studied law but could never find a job. He set up a workshop in the building’s courtyard, fixing cars to make money. He lived in the building for more than a year, paying 400 rand, about $20, per month for his room.

“I’m just praying he jumped from the window and didn’t die,” she said.

John Eligon

Preliminary evidence suggests that the fire started on the ground floor of the building, Mgcini Tshwaku, the Johannesburg councilman who oversees public safety, said in an interview. A security gate trapped many residents who were unable to escape, he said.

Lauren Leatherby

The fire broke out in the central Johannesburg neighborhood of Marshalltown, the city’s historic financial district, which has been the site of disrepair and many abandoned buildings in the last few decades.

Building where

fire broke out

ALBERT STREET

DELVERS STREET

Johannesburg

Site of fire

Building where

fire broke out

ALBERT STREET

DELVERS STREET

Johannesburg

Site of fire

Building where

fire broke out

ALBERT STREET

DELVERS STREET

Johannesburg

Site of fire

Source: Google Maps

By The New York Times

Aaron Boxerman

Robert Mulaudzi, a spokesman for Johannesburg’s emergency services, told South African television that seven minors had been identified among the 73 killed in the fire. The youngest was “about a year and a half,” he said.

John Eligon and Lynsey Chutel

Johannesburg was once a city of dreamers, a gold town that seduced prospectors from all over hoping to strike it rich. Lately, though, the city has been something of a political punchline, a metropolis where many residents’ spirits are as dark as the streetlights.

In May, after days of brinkmanship and arm twisting, the city inaugurated its sixth mayor in 22 months: Kabelo Gwamanda, a first-term city councilor from a political party that received just 1 percent of the vote in the previous municipal election.

His ascent capped the latest chapter in a political soap opera in which mayoral terms are measured in weeks and months and the inability of council members to stick with a leader has resulted in a municipal mess. Johannesburg residents have been the biggest losers.

While political leaders bicker over power and cliques, exasperated residents often struggle through days without electricity and water, dodge cratered roads and fret about dilapidated buildings, such as the one that caught fire on Thursday.

On Thursday morning, Mr. Gwamanda was at the scene of the fire along with members of the city’s coalition government. He blamed years of neglect for the conditions that led to the blaze, although he vowed that his administration would be accountable.

“This government is only six months old, and already we are facing historic challenges,” he said.

Lynsey Chutel

Mpho Buthelezi, who shared a room with her husband and child in the building, said she had managed to grab a television and computer screen while fleeing the fire. The family have lived in the building for two years, hiding each time the police raided it.

Without permanent work, she said, it was the only place her family could afford. “We survived by God,” she said, wrapping herself in the baby blanket that she had also saved.

Lynsey Chutel

One of the building’s residents, Sinenhlanhla Cele, said that she had woken to flames in the courtyard below around 1:30 a.m. The fire quickly spread, and she fled her apartment with nothing but a blanket. “We didn’t take anything,” she said.

Ms. Cele, 23, shared a room with another woman, paying 1,000 rand ($53) for a room with no bathroom or kitchen. She said she had moved into the building six months ago while searching for work in the city.

Aaron Boxerman

The current death toll in the Johannesburg fire is approximately that of the 2017 blaze at London’s Grenfell Tower, which claimed 72 lives. That disaster at the London high-rise was Britain’s deadliest residential fire since World War II.

Aaron Boxerman

Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda of Johannesburg told reporters at the scene that the five-story building was owned by the city, which had leased it to a nonprofit organization that provides emergency housing for women. But he said the nonprofit had subsequently abandoned its operations there.

Lynsey Chutel

The Johannesburg building where the deadly fire occurred on Thursday was one of several places that journalists for The New York Times visited in May while reporting for an article about the chaotic state of the city, South Africa’s most populous.

Residents of an apartment complex across the street described the building, which was once an apartheid government checkpoint for Black workers, as a nightmare. It had become a huge squatter camp in a city that is in the grip of a housing crisis.

People in the neighboring complex said they heard screams at night, and sounds that they thought could be gunfire or fireworks. Cars had been stolen from their side of the street, only to be found hidden on the other side of the building where the fire broke out on Thursday.

Pickpockets and thieves would target visitors and disappear into the squalid building, impossible to find, the neighbors said. Drug dealers hung around outside. In the courtyard, corrugated iron shacks had sprung up. Last year, a woman was thrown from the fourth floor of the building, several residents said.

When The Times visited, trash sagged out of second-floor windows. Another pile of trash, at least three feet high, partially blocked the entrance. A street vendor, balancing a crate of oranges on her head, skirted by the trash heap as she entered the building.

Emma Bubola

“I am surprised more fires haven’t happened,” said Mary Gillett-de Klerk, a coordinator at the Johannesburg Homelessness Network, calling the fire on Thursday “an event waiting to happen.”

She said that a dearth of shelters and affordable housing in Johannesburg had compelled many poorer people to squat in overcrowded buildings, sometimes with no sewage service or electricity.

Emma Bubola

Occupants in such spaces get by with makeshift systems to cook or light their spaces, she said, and squatters often divide regular-sized rooms into tiny subsections and rent them out.

“People live in really, really cramped conditions,” she said.

John Eligon

Speaking to the South African news channel ENCA, a concerned woman relayed how she had arrived on the scene to look for her daughter, who lived in the building. The mother, whom the station did not name, said that her daughter had been living there for more than a year and had struggled with drugs.

John Eligon

She had tried several times to check in on her daughter and drop off supplies for her at the building, but her daughter would shun her, the mother said. “Every time I come, she runs away,” she said, adding, “Everybody is saying she was in the building when the fire erupted, so they don’t know if she has survived.”