KEY POINTS
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An inferno in Ekurhuleni killed six family members, including four children; a seven-year-old girl remains in critical condition.
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Emergency services say restructured settlement design helped prevent the fire from spreading to neighbouring homes.
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Investigators are working to determine the cause as advocacy grows for safer infrastructure and housing in informal communities.
A tragic inferno in the early hours of Monday morning has claimed the lives of six members of a single family in the Marikana informal settlement in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng.
The inferno, which destroyed a four-room shack, left only one survivor—a seven-year-old girl—who is currently receiving emergency treatment in hospital for critical burn injuries.
Sowetanlive reports that Ekurhuleni emergency services received a distress call at 3:08 a.m. and arrived to find the shack fully engulfed in flames. Despite desperate efforts by neighbours using buckets of water to battle the blaze, the fire proved uncontrollable and devastating.
“Among the deceased are two toddlers, one just one and a half years old, and the other four,” said William Tladi, spokesperson for Ekurhuleni emergency services. “Two older children aged 12 and 20 also died, along with their parents, a 42-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man. All were burned beyond recognition.”
Firefighters say restructured layout of informal settlement prevented wider devastation from the inferno
The intense heat and destruction made it nearly impossible to identify the bodies, leaving emergency workers and grieving family members with the painful task of piecing together what little remains. “It’s difficult for us now to identify who is who,” Tladi explained. “Just a little bit of one or two of them can be identified by the families. We’re working carefully and delicately to recover their remains from beneath the rubble, one by one.”
The only surviving member from the inferno of the family, a young girl, was rushed to hospital in a critical condition. Her injuries are severe, and medical teams are working to stabilise her.
Officials have praised the design of the restructured informal settlement, noting that it helped prevent the fire from spreading further. “Fortunately, the informal settlement here has been restructured more formally, with space between the homes,” Tladi said. “So while the four-room shack burned down completely, the neighbouring structures survived.”
The cause of the fire remains undetermined. Authorities, including forensic experts and local police, are continuing their investigation to establish whether it was accidental or possibly caused by faulty electrical connections—a common hazard in informal settlements where illegal connections are frequently used for lighting and heating.
Shack fires remain a recurring tragedy in South Africa, especially in impoverished areas where families rely on makeshift electricity and open flames for warmth and cooking. According to a 2024 report by the Human Sciences Research Council, over 200 fire-related deaths were recorded in informal settlements across South Africa last year alone, with Gauteng accounting for more than a third of the fatalities.
This latest incident adds to a growing list of devastating fires affecting vulnerable communities. Civil society groups have renewed calls for improved housing, better access to electricity, and fire safety awareness campaigns.
Community leaders are expected to hold a memorial service for the victims later this week, while social workers have been deployed to assist traumatised residents and surviving relatives.
As the investigation continues, local authorities are urging residents to report unsafe electrical setups and remain vigilant, especially during the winter months when heating needs increase the risk of such disasters.
