JOBURG FIRE: Mayfair family lose home in blaze as overcrowding, illegal connections fuel fire risk

A devastating fire gutted a home in Mayfair, Johannesburg, displacing 20 people on Friday night, 2 October. The blaze broke out in a makeshift extension room occupied by a tenant before rapidly sweeping through the rest of the residence

Shady Fourie was in her room on the other side of the house when the fire started.

“I could smell smoke. I started panicking. Next minute all the lights are out. As I came out, I saw red flames all over and people were falling all over,” she said. “It was terrible to see everything go down in flames.”

All residents of the house escaped before the fire engulfed the building.

 A recurring threat 

Preliminary findings by Emergency Management Services (EMS) indicate that the blaze was caused by an overloaded circuit. The fire ignited in a sub-tenant’s room, where an unattended two-plate stove and heater sparked, setting fire to nearby curtains before rapidly engulfing the dwelling. 

However, this incident is far from being an isolated event. Ward 58 Councillor Ricky Nair, who has lived in Mayfair for more than four decades, notes that the area has seen six major blazes over the past two to three years.

Among the deadliest tragedies was a May 2025 fire in an informal Mayfair crèche that killed four toddlers. Barely a month later, another blaze in Mayfair West claimed the lives of a mother and her child. Both of these incidents were caused by the same thing: overloaded and unsafe electrical connections.

The Brixton Community Policing Forum (CPF), which oversees safety sectors in Mayfair, confirmed that overloaded electrical outlets remain the leading trigger for local house fires.

“This kind of thing happens a lot where the plug catches fire,” noted CPF member Khalid Cassim.

This was confirmed by property specialist Mohammed Khan, who highlighted the widespread issue of illegal connections in low-income inner-ring suburbs.

“Every home on this street is connected illegally,” he said. “You just slip a guy some money and he’ll connect you to the streetlights.”

Given the number of residents in households, plugs are pushed to their maximum capacity. This leads to frequent overloading and a highly volatile environment in which a single spark from an overloaded outlet can trigger a catastrophic fire.

The issue, however, cannot be solely attributed to compromised wiring. The fires also highlight a far wider crisis: the issue of urban overcrowding.

Conditions for catastrophe 

Mayfair sits right on the cusp of Joburg’s CBD. Like many other inner-ring suburbs, it remains a hotspot for low-income job seekers in finding affordable accommodation close to work, resulting in severely overcrowded living conditions.

“It’s an issue of unregulated migration and densification,” Nair stated. “Joburg has a unique problem of being the most attractive city, so everyone is flocking there.” 

Although exact population figures are hard to measure due to unregulated subletting, the reality on the ground is unmistakable. Nair noted that more than 50% of the residential homes had been altered with subdivisions and extensions to accommodate the influx of people.

This density fuels the risk of fire, as Johannesburg EMS spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi confirmed: “The fires we see are often in overcrowded homes.”

The Fourie home is a typical example: like many properties in the area, it was partitioned into smaller units to house an expanding family, with additional extension rooms built for sub-tenants in backyards. Ultimately, a house meant for five or six people was altered to accommodate 20. 

Khan has worked in inner-ring suburbs for more than two decades and has witnessed firsthand the lucrative economy of subletting.

“It’s a business,” he said. “The more rooms you have, the more money.”

However, he noted that these partitioned rooms effectively turned into fire traps. First, the structures used to divide houses were constructed from flammable materials like thin hardboard and timber framing. They were usually improperly sealed and accelerated the spread of smoke.

Second, residents must cook within confined spaces using high-risk appliances such as paraffin lamps, gas burners, and two-plate stoves. This created a highly dangerous environment where a single stray spark could lead to catastrophe. 

Beyond electrical hazards and property density, firefighters have often battled with failing water infrastructure in handling fires, as evident in June 2025. CPF chairperson Raheed Hoosien remarked: “We were lucky last night that we did not get hit by water shedding, so we had the fire engines that could access water and put the fire out.” 

Urgent appeal

Despite decades of warnings from Nair, municipal inaction has allowed unregulated subletting to flourish unchecked. While enforcing fire safety codes and room partitioning remains controversial in low-income suburbs, Nair maintains that strict regulation is the most actionable path to preventing future disasters. 

“We have no choice but to turn the city around. We’ve got to push back,” he stated. “The solution lies in the enforcement of by-laws to regulate property subletting.”

For homeowner Grayson Fourie and his extended family, the immediate reality is survival. Displaced and left with only the clothes on their backs, the family has appealed for emergency shelter, clothing, food and building supplies. DM

Drop-offs can be made at 17 Churchill Avenue in Crosby, and donations can be provided via their BackaBuddy page.

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