They are dozens to have been trapped: locked behind the locked gates of a squatted and dilapidated building in Johannesburg, more than 70 people including children perished Thursday in a violent fire whose balance sheet could still climb.
“We ran to try to find an emergency exit,” said Kenny Bupe. The 28-year-old told AFP that in the middle of the night, with a group of men, he had to break through a locked gate to escape the flames. “Others had already jumped out of the windows because they knew the door was locked.”
A fire ravaged the four-storey building overnight from Wednesday to Thursday in the South African economic capital. The building, whose facade is now blackened by smoke, is located in the city center, plagued by insecurity in one of the most dangerous countries in the world.
On each floor, gates closed every evening with a double turn to prevent the entry of intruders. When the fire broke out, panic invaded the occupants.
In the early morning, bodies were discovered behind a locked gate.
Nobuhle Zwane got away with it, narrowly: “We had a lot of trouble getting out,” she told AFP, her children aged 2 and 13 by her side. She describes people running in all directions. In the corridors, beds, furniture, had been piled up to try to slow down the fire.
Outside, sheets and blankets hang from the windows. The occupants of the building used what they had on hand to make makeshift ropes and attempt to escape.
“Boys managed to get out through the windows, women and children stayed behind and died inside,” said Irene Ntamba, a survivor. “Everything burned, our papers, our money”.
Witnesses told reporters they saw babies thrown out of windows in desperate attempts to save them from the flames.
“There were bodies all over the floor” after the fire, described Noma Mahlalela, 41, a housekeeper.
With mechanical ladders, firefighters return again and again to the building. They search, floor by floor, square meter by square meter. They are no longer really looking for survivors but for bodies.
The fire was brought under control Thursday morning. Police, medical examiners and local elected officials are on site.
In the middle of the road, an imposing rescue truck tries to block the view. Behind, lying on the pavement, charred bodies.
Rescuers pick up injured people suffering from poisoning and bruises. Women cry in the distance. Neighbors have taken to the streets, others are watching from their windows.
The cause of the fire has not yet been elucidated. Authorities cited candlelight as a possible cause. Opulent business district at the time of apartheid, the center of Johannesburg is today full of abandoned buildings often disconnected from the electricity network and exploited by slum landlords.
31/08/2023 15:06:18 – Johannesburg (AFP) © 2023 AFP
