The sound of a tremendous roar roused Mussi Hamissa from his sleep. His bed began to shake, and he heard somebody yelling “Fire! Fire! Fire!” in the distance.
He pulled his eyes open in disbelief to see the orange glow of flames coming into his temporary apartment on the third story of the building, which had originally been owned by the city of Johannesburg in South Africa but had become an informal home to migrants. The building had become a residence for migrants.
Mr. Hamissa coaxed his wife and the couple’s infant son, who was one year old, out of bed. He understood that in order for them to have any hope of surviving, they had to leap out of the window.
That is indeed what he accomplished in that regard.
Because of his fall onto the concrete, he has quite a few scrapes and bruises. However, he is still living.
Mrs. Hamissa, Mr. Hamissa’s wife, accidentally let their infant son fall out of the window, but Mr. Hamissa was there to save him. After that, his wife fastened a bed sheet around the satellite dish, and then she slithered down to the path below.
“Others began to imitate what we were doing. He said this with his eyes welling up with emotion. “They jumped too, but they didn’t make it.”
“There were quite a few people who had died… There were so many bodies. And I was unable to be of assistance to them.”
Mr. Hamissa, who was originally from Tanzania, has been a resident of the building for the previous three years. He was familiar with all of the other Tanzanians who were living in the apartment building, and he stated that many of them had not been able to escape.
“I suffered the loss of a great number of brothers and sisters. My relatives. They were all there, but the only two people I could bring were my wife and our newborn.
He believed that the guilt would follow him around for the rest of his life.
In addition to their funds and belongings, the family was unable to get their passports.
Since Mr. Hamissa occupied this structure illegally as a squatter, he was exempt from paying rent. Now that his crucial documents have been stolen and he has a job that pays little, he does not know what to do or where he should go.
Now, he is merely sitting across the street from his house, which is still belching smoke, and crossing his fingers that he will be able to provide shelter for his son tonight.
“I have no idea what they are going to do to us, and we have no idea where this can go. Because all of our belongings were destroyed, the government ought to provide assistance to us, he remarked.
There were many people who were not as fortunate as Mr. Hamissa.
When the fire broke out, Sphiwe Ngcobo was operating her street kiosk, which was located outside of the building. She claims that it happened so suddenly that by the time she hurried across the street to the building’s entrance, the flames had already blocked the entry.
She was unable to reach either of her children because they were both located on the second floor of the home.
Ms. Ngcobo waited for what seemed like hours as others began to flee the blazing building. Eventually, she was able to leave.
A neighbor was able to save her son, who was only five years old at the time. He was so angry that his mouth was frothing. As a result of breathing in such a large quantity of smoke and being in such a condition of shock, he was unable to get up on his own.
He was taken to the hospital by the emergency medical services, and she has not been updated on his condition since then.
Ms. Ngcobo remained at the scene of the fire in order to wait for additional information on the location of the body of her two-year-old child.
She is looking forward to concluding this chapter of her life.
“I don’t know what to do, and I don’t know where to go,” she remarked. “I don’t know what hospital my child is in, and I don’t know what morgue my other child is in. I don’t know where either of my children is. So I’ll just hang around here until I hear anything.”
While Mr. Hamissa and Ms. Ngobo attempted to catch some shut-eye together with the other around fifty people who were sitting around them, they were waiting for officials to notify them what was going to take place.
The air was thick with the odor of stale smoke and rotting food, and it was difficult to breathe. The sidewalk was covered in trash and what appeared to be unknown liquids.
They are going to continue to reside there for the time being.
