{"id":7573,"date":"2023-09-01T05:28:46","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T17:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7573"},"modified":"2023-09-01T05:28:46","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T17:28:46","slug":"johannesburg-fire-74-dead-in-blaze-at-city-centre-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7573","title":{"rendered":"Johannesburg fire: 74 dead in blaze at city centre building"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At least 74 people have died – including 12 children – after a Johannesburg building fire.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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More than 50 others were injured.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Officials say it is unclear what sparked the blaze at the city centre five-storey building, which had been abandoned but was being occupied by homeless people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called it a “tragedy”, adding that the “unprecedented” incident was a “wake-up call”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In a news conference at the site of the fire, Mr Ramaphosa commended emergency services, who arrived at the scene 10 minutes after the fire was reported.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ten of the bodies recovered from the fire were unidentifiable, a representative of the health department told the news conference.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Johannesburg city manager Floyd Brink said 200 families were affected by the fire and “all efforts” were taken to provide accommodation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda said displaced survivors would have temporary accommodation for three days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“After 72 hours, the human settlements department will advise on where they will be taken,” Mr Gwamanda said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Ramaphosa said people who needed assistance, from accommodation to counselling, “will be looked after”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He hopes investigations into the fire will allow both communities and authorities to prevent a repeat of such a tragedy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s a wake-up call for us to begin to address the situation of housing in the inner city,” the South African president said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Earlier, the city of Johannesburg confirmed that it owned the building, but said cartels had taken it over.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A spokesman for the emergency services, Robert Mulaudzi, told the BBC that firefighters had been able to bring out some of the occupants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He said the fire had gutted the building and the search for other victims was continuing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Speaking separately to Newzroom Afrika, Mr Mulaudzi said that the youngest of the seven children who died was 18 months old.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Disaster management officials are also in the area to help provide relief for surviving residents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Mulaudzi said the scene would be handed over to the South African police service after emergency services had finished searching for victims.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We are moving floor by floor conducting these body recoveries,” Mr Mulaudzi told local broadcaster ENCA.<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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At least 74 people have died – including 12 children – after a Johannesburg building fire. More than 50 others were injured. Officials say it is unclear what sparked the blaze at the city centre five-storey building, which had been abandoned but was being occupied by homeless people. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7575,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7573\/revisions\/7575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}