In South Africa, unstructured fires are on the rise in the informal settlements especially in this winter season.
The fire that blazed one of the five-Storey dilapidated buildings in Johannesburg CBD earliest hours on the 31st of August 2023 left about 175 households which were hosting about 422 people immense plight to meet their basic needs. From BBC information, at least 76 fatalities have been recorded, search and rescue services still continue as some bodies are believed to be still trapped inside the building. The Johannesburg Metro indicated that the building was invaded as it was disregarded of not meeting the standards of safe shelter due to its dilapidated state.

This fire outbreak come after reported fires incidents also in Durben. Indeed, on 16th of July 2023, a fire incident was already reported in the KwaZulu Natal province, specifically on Kennedy Road informal settlement. This caused adverse impact leaving 2,357 people (647 children and 1710 adults) displaced with almost all their belongings swept away by the strong fire. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66215286.

Following the report from Disaster Management Centre confirming the incident and rapid assessment conducted by the NS, SARCS has activated response team to assist with KwaZulu Natal province fire response. IFRC supported the scale-up of the SARCS initiated assistance through an allocation of CHF 214,419 allowing to extend their response capacity to the expressed needs in the different evacuation centers. The recent outbreak in Johannesburg require now to deploy same humanitarian services to the affected communities that are also leave without any substantial assistance week after the fire outbreak.