Woman, partner fought before tragedy: neighbours

Family identifies body found after complex fire

A fire that broke out at a Midrand residential complex, leaving hundreds of people homeless and one woman dead, is believed to have started at an apartment where a couple was allegedly heard fighting a few days earlier.

Johannesburg Emergency Management Service spokesperson Xolile Khumalo said the body of a 33-year-old woman was found under a collapsed ceiling inside the apartment where the fire started.

Neighbour Tebogo Seloane said he heard the couple arguing on Wednesday last week. He said he then saw the woman on Thursday, but that was the last time he saw her alive.

Seloane, 32, said he then saw the boyfriend the following day on Friday. From Saturday until Tuesday, he didn't see either of them until he later heard that the woman had been found dead at her Urban Village apartment, where the fire started.

"We are still waiting for the preliminary results on the cause of death. The body was not burnt, so the family was able to identify it. The information indicates that the fire started in the same room that the body was found in," Khumalo said.

The fire is believed to have started just before 9pm on Tuesday night. After putting out the blaze, firefighters sent out reports that there were no fatalities.

Khumalo said that was because when they were battling the blaze, there were no reports of a missing person. Just as they were about to wrap up, "a roll call was done and there were unconfirmed reports of a missing person".

"We then continued our search and the unconfirmed reports came true that a female had lost her life," Khumalo said.

Seloane, who lived in an apartment next to the woman's, said there was an exchange of words on Wednesday between the woman and her partner, and it seemed as if she was accusing the man of cheating. He said the argument lasted a couple of hours.

Seloane said it was not the first time the couple had argued so loudly that other people could hear them.

"We last saw the lady on Thursday while we last saw the guy on Friday," Seloane said.

"I know there was no-one there because they are the kind of people who used to smoke a lot and you would hear when they open the door to go out to smoke. However, over the weekend I didn't hear the door open."

Another resident said he had also heard the couple's fight on Wednesday. "Yoh, that fight was bad, everyone could hear them screaming," the man said.

The information indicates that the fire started in the same room that the body was found in.Spokesperson Xolile Khumalo

Police spokesperson Col Mavela Masondo confirmed that an inquest docket has been opened. "After the body was found we registered an inquest to investigate, but we are still waiting for a full report from firefighters on the fire and forensics for a postmortem," he said.

When the fire started, Seloane was on the phone. He  heard security guards knocking on his door, who then told him that the building was on fire.

Seloane said they saw smoke coming from his neighbours' apartment and rushed to open the door but couldn’t as it was locked.

They then decided to break the window to gain access. "But we realised that we couldn't get someone in to open the door because of smoke. So we broke down the door."

Seloane said he rushed out to get a fire extinguisher but when he came back the flames were already on the roof. He said he then left to notify other tenants about the fire.

Sowetan tried to contact the property owners but they were not available for comment.

Tenant Kgomotso Mokoduwe, 25, said the fire had turned out to be a horrific experience for her nephews who had visited for the school holidays.

She said she had to help them jump from the upper level to the ground floor when the fire spread through the building. Mokoduwe, a data analyst, said the only thing she managed to grab was her work laptop as "I  could not afford to lose my clients".

Sowetan tried to reach out to the deceased's family, however, they said they were not ready to comment yet.

SowetanIVE