Mayfair Building on Fire Claims 4 Lives

(The Post News)- A devastating fire broke out in a house yesterday, the 19th of May 2025, in the suburb of Mayfair, Johannesburg, claiming the lives of four toddlers. Authorities have launched an investigation to rule out what could’ve sparked the fire. Preliminary reports suggest that the fire may have been started by a heating device. It has been confirmed that the house that caught fire was being utilised as a daycare facility.

Meanwhile, rooms that did not catch fire within the facility were still occupied by some of the residents of the building last night. A local resident of Mayfair mentioned that, like many other buildings, the building was flagged for non-compliance and suggested that the building had lacked basic features such as a fire hose or fire extinguisher, and such is what contributed to the devastating results.

The resident continued to share that he had raised concerns about this particular building with the city of Johannesburg in the year 2022.It has been further reported that no effective action has followed the notice by the city in 2022.

Many organisations gathered last night to assist those affected after the tragic incident; however, no other officials other than the disaster management team from the city have been reported to have arrived.

The disaster management team is expected to return and assist the families with disaster relief. The Mayfair resident said, “I have a documented list of about 54 non-compliant buildings, and people’s lives are at risk… unscrupulous landlords are exploiting innocent people to live in these conditions when all they could do is make the buildings compliant and put together safety measures to prevent such a loss, and it’s not happening.”

The Director and CEO of Mayfair Muslim Youth Organisation, Mohammed Abdi, shared crucial information stating that “There were other thirty or forty families that were displaced last night, that were in the cold.” He further explains that the disaster management team couldn’t assist immediately as they had not been alerted y the fire department in time, however, the disaster management team promised to make its way back to come assist.