2023 Johannesburg building fire

2023 Johannesburg building fire
On 31 August 2023 at around 01:30 SAST, a fire engulfed an illegally occupied, abandoned, government-owned building in Johannesburg, South Africa; 77 people were killed and 88 others were injured. It was one of the deadliest fires in South African history.
The building
The building, 80 Albert Street, was built in 1954 as the head office of Johannesburg's Non-European Affairs Department, serving as a Pass Office for enforcing pass laws controlling the movement of black people into Johannesburg under the apartheid system. From 1994, the building housed a women's shelter later called the Usindiso Women's Shelter. In 2019, a clinic housed in the building was relocated by the member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Health and Social Development, Mpho Phalatse, as the building was occupied by squatters and found to be unsafe.
The building is marked with a heritage plaque narrating its history.
Fire
The fire broke out in the early hours of the morning on 31 August 2023, in the Central Business District, at a five-storey abandoned building on the corner of Delvers and Albert Streets that is owned by the city government and was taken over by gangs. It was being illegally occupied by as many as 400 impoverished people—many of them foreign nationals, economic migrants, and asylum seekers—all of whom were being charged rent by the gangs. The cause of the fire is not currently known. It spread through the building, trapping many people due to flimsy partitions and gates between makeshift rooms constructed by residents.
Many residents jumped from the windows of the building to escape, some of whom did not survive the jump. Firefighters found bodies piled up where they had died at a locked gate on the ground floor while trying to exit the burning building.
Aftermath
The fire brought attention to the hundreds of hijacked buildings in the Johannesburg CBD, typically overcrowded and unregulated and inhabited by impoverished and marginalised people including a large number of undocumented migrants to South Africa's economic hub of Johannesburg.
Some residents who survived the fire refused to board buses for relocation to emergency accommodation in community halls after the fire, fearing the relocation would be used by officials as an excuse for deportation, and being unwilling to leave behind the remains of their possessions in the burnt building.
Response
President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the site of the tragedy on 31 August, calling it a "wake-up call". Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi announced an inquiry into the fire. While government officials blamed the crisis on NGOs, who prevented the previous attempts to evict occupiers from similar properties, NGOs and inner city property owners argued that it was the duty of the City of Johannesburg to maintain buildings, provide services and enforce safety regulations. South Africa's courts have consistently ruled that evictions cannot proceed unless alternative housing is provided under the provisions of the 1998 Prevention of Illegal Eviction Act. Following the fire, the City attempted to disconnect illegal electricity connections from similar hijacked buildings in the city, but was met with strong resistance from residents.
See also
2023 Hanoi building fire, another large residential fire two weeks later
References
External links
South Africa fire: What are Johannesburg's hijacked buildings?—BBC News, 31 August 2023
2023 building fire
2023 disasters in South Africa
2023 fires in Africa
August 2023 events in South Africa
Building and structure fires in South Africa
Fire disasters involving barricaded escape routes
Residential building fires