JOHANNESBURG – Two people were killed and four were injured when fire engulfed a residential building in Johannesburg early on Sunday, city officials said, adding search and rescue operations were still underway.
“The fire operation continues at the two-storey building that was engulfed with flames earlier this morning,” the City of Johannesburg Emergency Management Services said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the city’s emergency management services told television channel eNCA it was unclear how many people were still trapped inside the building.
@CityofJoburgEMS Firefighters are currently responding to a building on fire in Joburg CBD, 4 people treated on scene transported to nearest health care facilities by Gauteng EMS, cause of the fire incident is unknown @CityofJoburgZA @CoJPublicSafety pic.twitter.com/CeOioe56ag
— Cojems Spokesperson (@RobertMulaudzi) January 21, 2024
An investigation into the cause of the fire will be undertaken once firefighting operations have been completed, officials said.
More than 70 people died last August after a fire raged through a run-down, five-storey Johannesburg apartment block, in one of the worst such disasters in a city where poverty, household fires and homelessness are widespread.
An inquiry to determine responsibility for that blaze is ongoing, but the incident highlighted a longstanding housing crisis that has seen some buildings in the inner city of Johannesburg occupied illegally. (Reuters)
