Nine residents lost their lives inside a building at Gazzine informal settlement in Jeppestown after a fire broke out.
Spokesperson for the Jeppe Police Station Captain Richard Munyai said in the early hours of 14 April, nine people including eight adults and a one-year-old child died after their shacks caught fire.
“Police were called to the scene where upon arrival they found shacks, which were built inside a building which used to be owned by Spoornet, on fire,” added Munyai.
He said emergency services personnel who doused the fire found the bodies of eight people including a one-year-old boy who died with his parents.
One person fell to his death of jumping from the third floor.
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“According to witnesses, the fire started on the ground floor in one of the shacks and spread to other floors where people were trapped but many of them managed to escape.”
Munyai said 11 other people were taken to hospital for burn and smoke inhalation treatment. Ten people were taken to Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital and one who was seriously injured was taken to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
Munyai said the cause of the fire was unknown and investigations were continuing.
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