Some of the survivors of the Joburg CBD building that caught fire in the early hours on Thursday morning have told the stories of how they saw death facing them and what they did to survive the inferno.

One of the survivors, Jagg Master from Malawi told ZiMoja that he had to jump from the fourth-floor window to save his life. "I had a choice to burn alive or jump," he says adding that the fire was coming from the third floor with smoke everywhere. "I could hear the screams across the whole building. I went straight to the balcony and prayed before jumping down. My ankle and thighs hurt, I think they are twisted, I hope they are not broken," he said. Master said that he has friends from his country who stay in the same building. "I am yet to see any of my friends and I pray that they are still alive. I am praying that they are fine wherever they are because it was chaos last night and it was hard to keep track of our loved ones," he said.

Saadi Juma thanks God he managed to survive the raging fire by also jumping through the window. "I was asleep in my room which is on the third floor when I was woken by the sound of screams and people running in the corridors. I woke up and reached for the door when I saw a huge blaze and I went back inside my room, reached for the window and jumped downstairs on the ground. I am injured and I’m still in disbelief about how I managed, but I am grateful to be alive." He adds that his brothers and cousins were also inside the building when the fire broke down. "They stayed in different rooms in the building and I have not seen them. I have lost everything I owned and I can’t really afford to lose my siblings in a foreign country," said a tearful Juma as he was taken away to an ambulance to get treatment.

Saadi Juma jumped from the third floor to escape the fire. Photo:ZiMoja

Joburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda, who visited the scene, says that 141 families have been displaced because of the fire. Gwamanda said he would be going to the hospitals to assess the extent of the survivors’ injuries. "We are here as government to demonstrate the fact that we want to be there to resolve the situation of our residents. The inner city has a number of challenges, we can acknowledge that much. It’s unfortunate that we keep responding to situations of this nature, where a building is leased for the purpose of rehabilitating society but ends up hijacked," Gwamanda said. He told the media that the building was leased by an NGO that dealt with rehabilitating women but ended up serving a different purpose." At midday, the death toll was sitting at 73 with some of the victims reportedly kids. The City of Joburg EMS spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi said that the number of injured stood at 52 and that most victims were transported to different health facilities in the city to get treatment.