South Africa's building fire death toll reaches 73

The death toll from fire in central Johannesburg on Thursday (31 August) has risen to 73, the South African city's emergency services said.

"The latest update is that we have now 73 fatalities and 52 people injured who were transported to various healthcare facilities for further medical care," said Emergency Management Services spokesman Robert Mulaudzi. Earlier In South Africa’s Johannesburg at least 63 people have died in a fire in a multi-storey building. Johannesburg  is the biggest city emergency services have said. 

Emergency Management Services said a further 43 people were injured in the blaze, which broke out early on Thursday. People have been evacuated from the building, and the emergency services spokesperson said a search and recovery operation was under way. It was likely the death toll would rise, Robert Mulaudzi said, and it was not immediately clear what caused the blaze.

 “Over 20 years in the service, I’ve never come across something like this,” he added.

Inside the five-storey building was an informal settlement, Mulaudzi said. “So there [are] a lot of informal structures inside the building. There is a lot of debris that we have to remove.”

The local television station Newzroom Afrika said the building had been abandoned previously but was still inhabited at the time of the fire.

Authorities said the blaze had been largely extinguished but smoke still seeped out of the blackened building in downtown Johannesburg.

Television footage showed fire trucks and ambulances outside the property, which had burned-out windows and had been cordoned off by police.

It was the fourth “older building” to catch alight in the city in recent months, the local news organisation Times Live reported.

Earlier in August, a fire tore through the top floor of a building in the suburb of Yeoville, near the central business district, and in June two children were killed in a blaze in Hilbrow. In July, a fire broke out after an underground gas explosion.