Police with sniffer dogs searched on Friday through the gutted remains of a Johannesburg apartment block as authorities stepped up investigations into the cause of a fire that killed more than 70 people.
Officers cordoned off areas around the run-down five-story building that was destroyed in a blaze in the early hours of Thursday in one of South Africa’s worst such disasters in living memory.
Most of the bodies were burned beyond recognition and investigators would have to rely on DNA samples from friends and relatives to identify them, said Thembalethu Mpahlaza from Gauteng province’s Forensic Pathology Services.
Only 12 of the 74 bodies they had recovered so far were identifiable by sight, he added.
“I am devastated,” said block resident Wambali Kaunda, who lost his brother and niece in the fire.
“We have been told that if you are able to identify your family members, then you will be able to collect the bodies.”
He said he was on the first floor not far from the exit when the fire broke out, so managed to escape.
While household fires are common in Johannesburg, especially in poor areas, the incident has highlighted a housing crisis in one of the world’s most unequal cities with widespread poverty and joblessness.
The apartment block is owned by municipal authorities, but officials have struggled to provide a clear picture of who lived there, saying the block had been “invaded and hijacked” by unknown groups.
A provincial official said some of those who died may have been renting from, or were being extorted by, criminal gangs in the so called “hijacked buildings” syndicates.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the fire was “great tragedy” and a wake-up call for South Africa to tackle its inner-city housing crisis.
Ramaphosa, who visited the scene, also said the tragedy was partly caused by “criminal elements” who had taken over the building and were charging people to live there.
“The lesson for us is that we’ve got to address this problem,” Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa’s call was repeated by many figures from national and local government, who said it was time to resolve Johannesburg’s housing crisis. Emergency services teams have left the scene and pathologists on Friday faced the grisly task of identifying dozens of charred bodies.
Johannesburg Emergency Services spokesperson Nana Radebe said the building has been handed over to the police and forensic investigators, who will conduct their own searches and were already working at the scene on Friday.
The police have opened a criminal case, although it was unclear who might face any charges over the deaths as no official authority was in charge of running the building.
South Africa’s parliament has called for a wider investigation.
But hijacked buildings have been an issue in the city’s center for years, if not decades.
Senior city officials conceded they had been aware of problems at the building since at least 2019.
The sudden focus on the issue, only after so many people died, angered some.
“We have seen the president calling this incident tragic,” said Herman Mashaba, a former mayor of Johannesburg and now the leader of an opposition political party.
“What do you mean tragic? You’ve been aware of this. We have seen the decay of this city over 25 years. It’s not something that just happened overnight.”