Some of the people living in the building in South Africa's biggest city threw themselves out of windows to escape the blaze. As many as 200 people may have been living in the building.
Updated August 31, 2023 at 6:42 AM ET
Emergency crews expected to find more victims as they worked their way through the building, a process slowed by the conditions inside. Dozens of bodies were lined up on a nearby side road, some in body bags, and others covered with silver sheets and blankets. Mulaudzi said the death toll was likely to increase and more bodies were likely trapped inside the building. The fire took three hours to contain, he said, and firefighters had only worked their way through three of the building's five floors by mid-morning."This is a tragedy for Johannesburg. Over 20 years in the service, I've never come across something like this," Mulaudzi said.
City officials said 141 families were affected by the tragedy, although they were not able to immediately say how many people were in the building at the time of the blaze. Many of them were believed to be foreign nationals, officials said.
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