A fire broke out in a building in Johannesburg’s city centre early on Thursday, causing multiple fatalities and injuries.
The fatality toll has surpassed 60, and it is expected to rise as firemen conduct a search and rescue mission inside the building.
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“It’s a five-storey building which caught fire in the early hours of this morning. We managed to evacuate the people who were inside the building as soon as we arrived while we were conducting firefighting operations.”
Among the fatalities, he said, was “a young child who might be between one and two years old.”
Several of those affected had smoke inhalation, while others had minor injuries.
He stated that the fire had been extinguished and that they were working on “damping down” as well as search and recovery efforts.
“At this stage the cause of the fire is still a subject of investigations.
“Officials from City of Johannesburg disaster management have been activated to start facilitating relief for affected families.”
This is the third of the city’s older structures to catch fire within the past few months. Two small children died in a fire in Hillbrow in June, and earlier this month, a fire gutted the top story of a building in nearby Yeoville. In July, an underground gas blast in Lilian Ngoyi, previously Bree, street struck the city centre.
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@CityofJoburgEMS Firefighters are currently attending to a building on fire in @CityofJoburgZA CBD corner Delvers, Alberts street at this stage 10 people confirmed dead and multiple patients treated on scene transported to various health care facilities for further medical care pic.twitter.com/20b6NXaHvF
— Cojems Spokesperson (@RobertMulaudzi) August 31, 2023
BREAKING: 18 people have tragically lost their lives in a fire in Joburg CBD. It’s unclear what caused the fire. Emergency services tried to evacuate people in the early hours of the morning but already 10 people died. Number has now increased to 18. Video supplied #eNCA #CBDFire pic.twitter.com/NAwLbTeF9X
— Heidi Giokos (@HeidiGiokos) August 31, 2023
13 people have died in fire at a five storey building in the Joburg CBD. There are also multiple injuries @CityofJoburgEMS spokesman @RobertMulaudzi said the cause of the fire is being investigated @TheCitizen_News @Lesufi pic.twitter.com/0ek2nV3OVD
— 𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚣𝚎𝚕 𝙿𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚕 (@FaizelPatel143) August 31, 2023
