Joburg EMS platoon commander Lucas Thipa said that evacuating people from the building was a prolonged process due to the number of bodies found on the ground floor and the delicate task of moving them.
JOHANNESBURG - Joburg EMS's Lucas Thipa has outlined challenges faced by firefighters in accessing the Usindiso building during the deadly fire that engulfed the five–storey hijacked building in August this year.
The second day of the commission of inquiry into the blaze, which claimed 77 lives, is underway in Parktown. Thipe, who is Joburg EMS's platoon commander said that evacuating people from the building was a prolonged process due to the number of bodies found on the ground floor and the delicate task of moving them.
"Every floor, commissioner, was locked and every room that the people were in was locked. Now we had to do forcible entry in every room we went into. What also made it difficult is the number of bodies on the ground floor and the first floor."
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