A fire that broke out at the South African Revenue Services (SARS) in Marshalltown, Joburg on Wednesday afternoon has been contained.
According to the Johannesburg emergency management services (EMS) all employees were evacuated.
EMS spokesperson Nana Radebe Kgiba said all SARS employees were safe.
“The City of Johannesburg emergency services is currently on the scene of the fire and we can confirm that the fire has been contained at the basement level which is used as storage,” said Radebe-Kgiba
She further said preliminary investigations of what had caused the fire will be released after they are done working in the basement.
In August, a fire killed more than 70 people in an abandoned building in the same area. Dozens more were left injured.
Even though the cause of that fire is still under investigation, when President Cyril Ramaphosa, who visited the site, said Johannesburg has not had an incident like the one in Marshalltown.
“Johannesburg has never had an incident like this, where so many people died as a result of a fire in the centre of the city.
“We’ve got to get to the bottom of what caused this fire. It’s a wake-up call for us to begin to address the situation of housing in the inner city.
“We need to get on top of this and find effective ways of dealing with problems of housing and services in the inner city,” said Ramaphosa.
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