At least four people have died and three others have been injured in a building fire in the Johannesburg inner city.

The incident occurred in an abandoned building during the early hours of Sunday morning.

Speaking to the SABC at the site of the fire, City of Johannesburg Emergency Management Services spokesperson, Robert Mulaudzi, said the abandoned building was found ‘well alight’ when emergency services arrived in the early hours of Sunday morning.

‘We started evacuating the residents who were inside the building. While we were conducting our fire fighting operations, there were three people who came out of the building injured… One was critically injured. We can also confirm that… we managed to recover four bodies. Unfortunately, paramedics confirmed them dead on the scene.

‘We have activated our disaster management officials who are on site, we have got our colleagues from City Power, who are here to also try and disconnect some of the illegal connections in the building, and also officials from the
city to facilitate some relief for the residents,’ Mulaudzi said.

By 10am on Sunday morning, fire fighters were damping down the hotspots and conducting a proper sweep of the building.

‘So starting from the ground floor up until the last floor… we’re sweeping through the building just to remove any uncertainty of any person who might still be missing. After we have done that, we are going to be handing over the building to the South African Police Service to continue with their own investigations,’ Mulaudzi said.

The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Source: South African Government News Agency