One person dead and when a fire broke out and destroyed more than 400 shack near Kwa Mai Mai in Jeppestown in the early hours of Sunday morning. Another person was also injured in the blaze and was taken to hospital by emergency services.
Johannesburg emergency services spokesperson Nana Radebe said firefighters received a call about the fire at the informal settlement just after midnight.
“When firefighters arrived on the scene, the whole place was gutted down. It took us about four to five hours to put out the fire. One person was found dead when we were still doing search and rescue and another person suffered burns in the neck and hands and she was taken to hospital,” Radebe said.
“The cause of the fire is unknown at this stage. Our fire safety officers are doing preliminary investigations and also interviewing the community to establish where the fire started,” Radebe added.
Residents were forced to flee their homes as the fire spread from one shack to another. Residents tried to save what they could and others barely made it out alive as the fire raged on. Phalatse was in the area with city officials on Sunday.
Mayor Mpho Phalatse said shelter will be provided but a permanent solution would take about two weeks. “It is the housing department that needs to get the site ready where shacks will be erected for the affected individuals. That’s not going to happen today, there needs to be a week. In the meantime, they will be housed in a community development facility nearby,” the mayor said.
In April last year nine people died in a fire that gutted a building in the same community.
Source: Eyewitness News, ENCA, Sowetan Live, Times Live, SABC News, Jacaranda FM, image from Twitter