{"id":59716,"date":"2024-01-17T17:03:44","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T17:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade"},"modified":"2024-01-17T17:51:08","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T17:51:08","slug":"usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade","title":{"rendered":"Usindiso blaze was one of the most tragic fire disasters to hit Africa, says head of private fire brigade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The catastrophe at the Usindiso building in the Johannesburg CBD last year that killed 77 people can be characterised as one of Africa\u2019s deadliest fires.<\/p>\n<p>This was part of the testimony of Wynand Engelbrecht, chief fire officer at Fire Opps SA, who took to the stand on Wednesday at the commission of inquiry into the blaze.\u201cThe condition of that building was not unlike that of hundreds of other such buildings in the city or the country. The profile is one of general neglect and total disregard for fire safety and thus the preservation of life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is clear, both privately owned and public sector owned structures are far too often left to deteriorate to the point of no return. Life safety is not a priority in this country, not by a long shot,\u201d Engelbrecht stated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe term hijacked building suddenly is on everyone\u2019s lips&#8230; All of a sudden there are hijacked buildings everywhere. Accountability and responsibility are long-forgotten twins,\u201d said Engelbrecht.<\/p>\n<p>He added that as with any other disaster in the world, there are always watered down statements made by those in power to the effect that this will never happen again, \u201cthen it happens again\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis incident has proven to us the issue is way beyond mere politics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no national fire code in SA, all major cities and metro councils need to take cognisance of this fact. The solution is for cities to make major adjustments to the fire safety bylaws and stop blaming the national fire regulations, which is not a fire code,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The time frame for the first part of the commission was extended to the end of March 2024 and the report is due at the end of April.<\/p>\n<p>The conclusion of the hearing for the second part was extended to the end of July, and the report is due at the end of August.The commission has already missed its first deadline of November 30 last year, the date by which it was supposed to have completed its investigation into the circumstances leading to the fire and who should be held accountable. Part B of the inquiry will deal with the prevalence of hijacked buildings in the Johannesburg inner city.<\/p>\n<p>Engelbrecht also commented on pictures admitted in evidence. One of them showed covered bodies lying on the street after being extracted from the building.On this, he said that the city could have handled the situation better.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\">South-Africa<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. The catastrophe at the Usindiso building in the Johannesburg CBD last year that killed 77 people can be characterised as one of Africa\u2019s deadliest fires. This was part of the testimony of Wynand Engelbrecht, chief fire officer at Fire Opps SA, who took to the stand on Wednesday at the commission of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":59714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-59716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Usindiso blaze was one of the most tragic fire disasters to hit Africa, says head of private fire brigade - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The catastrophe at the Usindiso building in the Johannesburg CBD last year that killed 77 people can be characterised as ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Usindiso blaze was one of the most tragic fire disasters to hit Africa, says head of private fire brigade\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The catastrophe at the Usindiso building in the Johannesburg CBD last year that killed 77 people can be characterised as ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-17T17:03:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-17T17:51:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/01\/sm_1705501168.911539.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"562\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Usindiso blaze was one of the most tragic fire disasters to hit Africa, says head of private fire brigade\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-17T17:03:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-17T17:51:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade\"},\"wordCount\":437,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/01\/sm_1705501168.911539.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade\",\"name\":\"Usindiso blaze was one of the most tragic fire disasters to hit Africa, says head of private fire brigade - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/01\/sm_1705501168.911539.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-17T17:03:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-17T17:51:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The catastrophe at the Usindiso building in the Johannesburg CBD last year that killed 77 people can be characterised as ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/01\/sm_1705501168.911539.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/01\/sm_1705501168.911539.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":562,\"caption\":\"Usindiso blaze was one of the most tragic fire disasters to hit Africa, says head of private fire brigade\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Usindiso blaze was one of the most tragic fire disasters to hit Africa, says head of private fire brigade\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Usindiso blaze was one of the most tragic fire disasters to hit Africa, says head of private fire brigade - South Africa","description":"The catastrophe at the Usindiso building in the Johannesburg CBD last year that killed 77 people can be characterised as ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Usindiso blaze was one of the most tragic fire disasters to hit Africa, says head of private fire brigade","og_description":"The catastrophe at the Usindiso building in the Johannesburg CBD last year that killed 77 people can be characterised as ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2024-01-17T17:03:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-01-17T17:51:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":562,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/01\/sm_1705501168.911539.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Usindiso blaze was one of the most tragic fire disasters to hit Africa, says head of private fire brigade","datePublished":"2024-01-17T17:03:44+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-17T17:51:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade"},"wordCount":437,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/01\/sm_1705501168.911539.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-South-Africa","South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","community"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade","name":"Usindiso blaze was one of the most tragic fire disasters to hit Africa, says head of private fire brigade - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/01\/sm_1705501168.911539.jpg","datePublished":"2024-01-17T17:03:44+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-17T17:51:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The catastrophe at the Usindiso building in the Johannesburg CBD last year that killed 77 people can be characterised as ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/01\/sm_1705501168.911539.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/01\/sm_1705501168.911539.jpg","width":750,"height":562,"caption":"Usindiso blaze was one of the most tragic fire disasters to hit Africa, says head of private fire brigade"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/usindiso-blaze-was-one-of-the-most-tragic-fire-disasters-to-hit-africa-says-head-of-private-fire-brigade#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Usindiso blaze was one of the most tragic fire disasters to hit Africa, says head of private fire brigade"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}