73 dead as fire sweeps residential building in South African city of Johannesburg

The building is said to have been ‘in a very bad state’.

A fire has swept through a residential building in the South African city of Johannesburg, killing at least 73 people – including seven children - and injuring many more.

Fire fighters said the cause of the blaze has not yet been established, but added that the building – which was described as “abandoned” and an “informal settlement” and was thought to house mainly homeless people and undocumented African immigrants – did not have electricity.

The fire broke out in the five storey building in the early hours of the morning. Firefighters worked to put out the blaze, but many people had been unable to escape the building and died.

Firefighters work at the scene of a fire in a five-storey residential block in Johannesburg which broke out in the early hours of this morning.

Johannesburg Emergency Management Services spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi said one of the first bodies to be pulled from the burned building was that of a toddler aged one or two years old.

He said the lack of electricity could have led the inhabitants to use dangerous heating devices, which may have been the cause of the fire. It is currently winter in South Africa, when temperatures can drop below 10 degrees Celsius at night.

"At this stage, we don’t know what could be the cause of the fire incident,” Mr Mulaudzi said. “But we are told that at the time when the fire started, they didn’t have electricity.”

He said the death toll could rise further as emergency services conduct a full search off all floors of the building.

An investigation is to be launched into the blaze.

Treasurelee Shuping was outside the burned building looking for her 24-year-old daughter, who she said had lived there for over a year.

"As soon as I heard the building was burning down, I knew I had to run here to come and look for her," she said.

"Now that I'm here, I'm kept in suspense because I really don't know what is happening. I don't get any direction and the death toll is rising - so I'm actually very anxious, I don't know if my daughter is alive."

Asked about the condition of the building, which has been described as being overcrowded, she said: "It was in a very bad state - not a place that somebody can live in, that's why I was trying to get her back home so that she can get back to the life she was living before."

Fire fighters have described makeshift shacks which had been erected inside the building.

One said that many of the victims of the fire were likely to have been trapped by the combustible shack-like structures and unable to get out once the fire broke out.

"The picture is of an informal settlement inside the building,” he told a local radio station.

“The combustible material which is burning inside the building is mostly like the one you find in a normal shack, so the risk of you being trapped as you try to escape is high.”

The South African authorities said survivors will be given trauma counselling and emergency shelter.