A shack fire in the Marikana Informal Settlement, located in Kwathema east of Johannesburg, has claimed the lives of six family members in the early hours of Monday morning.
Marikana fire: Here’s everything we know
The sole survivor is a seven-year-old boy who suffered severe burn wounds and is currently in critical condition at a local hospital.
Emergency services were called to the scene at around 03:00. Firefighters from Ekurhuleni Emergency Medical Services (EMS) arrived to find a four-room shack completely engulfed in flames.
Community members had already started trying to put out the fire before help arrived. Firefighters eventually managed to extinguish the blaze.
William Ntladi, spokesperson for Ekurhuleni EMS, confirmed the tragic outcome:
“Unfortunately, they found six family members who have perished, and their bodies were unfortunately burnt beyond recognition.”
Ntladi added that identifying the victims is proving to be extremely difficult.
“It’s difficult for us now to identify who is who. Just a little bit of one or two of them can be identified by the families. But yes, we do have the names of the entire family and their ages. We’re working carefully and delicately to recover their remains from beneath the rubble, one by one.”
The young survivor, who was found among the debris with critical injuries, was privately transported to a hospital for emergency treatment. His condition is still critical.
The cause of the fire remains unknown. Police and forensic teams are now investigating to determine what led to the blaze.
Authorities have taken over the scene to manage the situation and ensure the victims’ bodies are respectfully removed and taken to a forensic pathology facility for further examination.
Informal settlements are areas where people build homes from materials like wood, tin, and plastic, often very close to one another.
Fires in these areas can spread quickly and be deadly.
However, Ntladi noted that in this case, the settlement had been recently restructured to allow more space between shacks.
“Fortunately, the informal settlement here has been restructured more formally, with space between the homes. So while the four-roomed shack burned down completely, the neighbouring structures survived,” he said.
The investigation into the fire is ongoing, and more details are expected to emerge in the coming days.