The number of fatalities from a fire that burned a five-story building in the heart of Johannesburg on Thursday has increased to 73, according to the emergency services of the South African metropolis.
According to the most recent information, there have been 73 fatalities and 52 injured persons who have been sent to various hospitals for additional medical attention, according to Emergency Management Services spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi.
Residents trapped in the South African blaze escaped through windows.
As flames transformed the five-story building in central Johannesburg into a death trap, frantic people hung blankets and sheets from the scorched windows to seek safety.
Witnesses described parents fumbling about in vain for an escape before flinging their babies out onto the street in an attempt to save them.
Nobuhle Zwane, who managed to flee through the smoke with her two children, ages two and 13, said, “It was so difficult for us to get out.”
Many other people did not survive.
A fire that started in the early hours of the morning and quickly consumed a structure used for squalid living resulted in more than 70 fatalities and numerous injuries.
Authorities believe that there were more than 80 “shacks” erected within the structure.
More evidence of the trauma that homeowners had to deal with was discovered inside by emergency personnel.
An official reported that bodies were found stacked up at a security gate that had been shut, preventing anyone from leaving.
Residents told AFP that there were security gates on each of the five stories, which were shut at night to keep away burglars and the police.
The building is situated in a poor, criminal-infested section of what was once the financial centre of South Africa’s main commercial district.
However, according to the city officials, after being abandoned, it was converted into squalid dwellings.
Security personnel, ambulances, fire vehicles, bystanders, and horrified survivors — some of whom were waiting for details on their loved ones — were all swarming the scene as morning broke.
Rescuers partially protected from prying eyes by a huge emergency services vehicle put victims under blankets on the pavement outside.
Irene Ntamba, a local, claimed that “some… got out through windows, women and children were left behind, and they died while inside.”
“We lost everything that was burned, including our documents and money.”
–‘Grateful to be alive’–
While two ladies on a neighbouring street comforted one other while crying, paramedics helped survivors, some of whom seemed injured and clearly in agony.
According to tenant Noma Mahlalela, 41, “the scene this morning was a mess, there were bodies on the ground everywhere,” noting that most of the residents of the building were foreign nationals.
People watched the news on television in silence at the adjacent taverns and stores.
The fire’s origin is being looked into.
According to the authorities, candles used as illumination or stoves and other heating sources were probably to blame.
As firemen dampened down the burning structure and climbed a mechanised ladder to the upper stories, the building was blanketed in ash.
Some passages, according to Zwane, a mother of two, are obstructed by beds.
Kenny Bupe, a survivor, recalled, “There was a lot of us running, trying to find the fire exit,” adding that he was a member of a group that was able to force open a closed fire escape gate and flee to safety.
