![A firefighter battling a house fire in Johannesburg, South Africa in which at least 73 people, mostly homeless and foreign nationals, were killed, on August 31, 2023. [Twitter/Screenshot/User: @insidercnews]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-31-091440-e1693487873105.jpg "A firefighter battling a house fire in Johannesburg, South Africa in which at least 73 people, mostly homeless and foreign nationals, were killed, on August 31, 2023. [Twitter/Screenshot/User: @insidercnews]")
A fire broke out early Thursday at a five-story apartment in an inner-city area in South Africa, killing at least 73 people and injuring 55 others, according to several reports.
At least 200 people, most of them homeless and foreign nationals, were estimated to be living in the Johannesburg Central Business District building, including its basement originally meant to be a garage, the Associated Press (AP) reported. A total of 141 families reportedly were affected in the 1:00 a.m. fire, with several of the victims being children and the youngest victim a one-year-old baby. Some residents jumped or threw babies out of windows. One witness claimed to see a person jump out of a third-floor window, landing on the concrete sidewalk “head first,” according to the AP.
NEW: Over 70 killed in massive building #fire in South Africa’s #Johannesburg pic.twitter.com/g9HtCATZ9b
— Insider Corner (@insidercnews) August 31, 2023
There were shacks in the building and the fire started in one of them, said a Zimbabwean woman who escaped the flames and spoke to SABC News. Officials have not yet identified the cause of the fire, but the woman said someone left a candle on as there was no power from 6 p.m. Wednesday until when the fire started, according to SABC News.
“I’m desperate, I don’t even know what to do,” the woman said, her young child in her arms. (RELATED: 11 Dead After Fire Rages Through Vacation Home For Disabled Adults)
Locked gates and a lot of partitions within the building made escape difficult and many bodies were found stacked on one gate, City of Johannesburg Community Safety official Dr. Mgcini Tshwaku said, according to SABC News.
“The bottom line here [is that] there is also people who had informal settlement sort of. People built using high flammable material, wood and all of that,” Dr Tshwaku added.
More than 70 people were killed overnight when fire raged through a Johannesburg apartment block — one of the worst such disasters in a city where poverty, household fires and homelessness are widespread. pic.twitter.com/gPRGzpe7sB
— DW News (@dwnews) August 31, 2023
The city’s firefighters reportedly evacuated the building, SABC News noted.
The city’s government has been locked in a battle with non-governmental organizations over illegal occupancy of buildings. City officials shut down some buildings and moved residents out due to fire risk and power cuts, but the organizations repeatedly threatened litigation and arrest of city officials over such moves, Tshwaku said.
“This is a tragedy for Johannesburg. Over 20 years in the service, I’ve never come across something like this,” Johannesburg Emergency Services Management spokesman Robert Mulaudzi said, according to the AP.