Three firefighters die in Joburg city centre blaze, as government admits building was not up to code
The only way to rescue them is to rappel from the roof of the building, but that is dangerous and rescuers will have to be incredibly careful, one firefighting expert says
Three firefighters have died in a blaze that engulfed the top of a Johannesburg CBD building on Wednesday. Gauteng MEC for infrastructure development Jacob Mamabolo confirmed that one of the firefighters fell to his death and two others were found inside the building‚ which houses the offices of the Gauteng departments of health, human settlements, and co-operative governance and traditional affairs, on Sauer Street. He said the building was not up to code. According to Mamabolo‚ the provincial government received a report on August 27 that indicated that eight government-owned buildings were noncompliant. This included the building in which the fire broke on Wednesday. The health and human settlements building was 21% compliant‚ and buildings should ideally be above 85% compliant‚ he said. "It’s very clear to us there is a problem with government buildings in the provincial government‚ so we are not in denial about that point. If we created the impression that we didn’t know‚ that ...
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