Fire in Johannesburg: South Africa president Ramaphosa says blaze that killed 74 people ‘a wake up call’

Thembalethu Mpahlaza from Gauteng province’s Forensic Pathology Services said that only 12 of the 74 bodies they had recovered so far were identifiable by sight.

“I am devastated,” block resident Wambali Kaunda, who lost his brother and niece in the fire, told Reuters.

“We have been told that if you are able to identify your family members, then you will be able to collect the bodies.” He said he was on the first floor not far from the exit when the fire broke out, so managed to escape.

Police with sniffer dogs searched on Friday through the gutted remains of a Johannesburg apartment block as authorities stepped up investigations into the cause of a fire that killed more than 70 people.

Officers cordoned off areas around the run-down five-storey building that was destroyed in a blaze in the early hours of Thursday in one of South Africa’s worst such disasters in living memory.

Most of the bodies were burned beyond recognition and investigators would have to rely on DNA samples from friends and relatives to identify them, said.

Household fires are common in Johannesburg, especially in poor areas. One of the poorest townships, Alexandra, has seen hundreds of homes razed in several fires over the past five years.

The city suffers from chronic power shortages during which many resort to candles for light and wood fires for heat. Authorities said the cause of this latest fire is still under investigation.

Johannesburg remains one of the world’s most unequal cities with widespread poverty, joblessness and a housing crisis. It has about 15,000 homeless people, according to the Gauteng government.

Household fires are common in Johannesburg, especially in poor areas. One of the poorest townships, Alexandra, has seen hundreds of homes razed in several fires over the past five years.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party says it is “saddened by the tragic loss of life” in Johannesburg.

“We urge law enforcement authorities to ensure that those responsible for this tragedy are held accountable,” it said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda said officials would relocate people living “hijacked” buildings in the city, like the one consumed by the fire.

Since the end of apartheid in 1994, a housing crisis in Johannesburg has grown worse, as big businesses moved out of the inner city into affluent suburbs. Criminal syndicates in the 1990s and 2000s started “hijacking” buildings that were left empty and renting them out illegally.

The city will turn those buildings into social housing.

“We are not going there with brute force,” he said, “we are trying to apply a sensitive strategy.”

One woman told journalists she was outside the building searching for her 24-year-old daughter.

“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 – so I’m actually very anxious, I don’t know if my daughter is alive.”

The fire took three hours to contain and firefighters then needed a long time to work through all five floors, said Johannesburg Emergency Services Management spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi.

He said there were “obstructions” everywhere that would have made it very difficult for residents to escape the deadly blaze and which hindered emergency crews trying to search the site.

The chance of anyone else being found alive hours after the fire broke out was “very slim,” Mr Mulaudzi said.