At least 73 people have died in a fire in a building in South Africa’s biggest city, authorities say

NY Post ^ | 31/8/23

[Eleutheria5]

At least 73 people died when a nighttime fire ripped through a rundown five-story building in Johannesburg that was used by homeless people, emergency services said Thursday.

Some of the people living in the building in South Africa’s biggest city threw themselves out of windows to escape the blaze and might have died because of that, a local government official said.

Seven of the victims were children, the youngest a 1-year-old, according to an emergency services spokesperson.

Another 43 people were injured in the blaze, which broke out at about 1 a.m. in the heart of Johannesburg’s central business district, Johannesburg Emergency Services Management spokesman Robert Mulaudzi said.

Abandoned and broken-down buildings in the area are common and often taken over by people desperately seeking some form of accommodation.

.....

Lots of distressing pictures

[Eleutheria5]

Already happening in a big city near you.

[ConservativeInPA]

How many died in Maui?

[VTenigma]

Squatters. Johannesburg is returning to it’s tribal roots.

[Rusty0604]

Victoria Nuland was just there investing our money in their green energy. The State Department is very unhappy that SA is friends with Russia.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

This never happened under Apartheid.

[9YearLurker]

Weeks later than the Maui conflagration—and they already know the count and identity of the vagrants who died in their blaze.

Officials in HI are claiming it may take them years to identify their dead.

[ridesthemiles]

SOOOOOOOOOO—

YOU ARE HOMELESS

YOU HAVE NO SHELTER

YOU HAVE NO FOOD

YOU HAVE NO MARKETABLE SKILLS

YOU HAVE NO JOB

YOU HAVE NO SUPPORT SYSTEM

BUT YOU GET PREGNANT??????

IQ of a BANANA

[Jaysin]

Do you mean that not even one of these people killed was famous enough to have their own wikipedia page?

[VTenigma]

You have no prospects because the anti-aparthied tribalists have destroyed the country.

[VTenigma]

They may get one now.

[Gen.Blather]

Granted this is tragic. But it is irrelevant to most of the people on FR. Even someone from SA would probably skip it.
There used to be a style of article called “bus plunge.” It arose because type had to be set and there was often a small space at the end of a column that was insufficient for any of the local or national news. Therefore, the editor would go to “the wire” and look for a story on a bus that plunged off a cliff or high road usually in some foreign country. Because the story had no relevance to any readers yet was tragic enough to count as “news” it could be forced to fit whatever space was left over from the real news. That’s what this fire story reminded me of. Tragic but irrelevant to anything or anyone.

[Eleutheria5]

Apartheid was instituted for the official reason of controlling the “influx” of tribals in a disorderly manner. So here’s Jo’berg without “influx control”. Apartheid was awful. But this is no improvement, either.

And it is relevant to the “sanctuary cities” and cities with huge homeless populations, because with so much excess humanity, you have unruly swarms of people taking over abandoned buildings, and they’re causing fires, too.

[GailA]

btt

[Eleutheria5]

One building vs. an entire island.

[9YearLurker]

What do you mean?

[Eleutheria5]

You're comparing a fire engulfing the island of Maui to one that effected just one building in Johannesburg, and wondering why it's so difficult for the authorities to compile a comprehensive death toll in the former, but not the latter. Illogical.