A man was arrested Tuesday hours after he claimed responsibility for starting a building fire in South Africa last year that killed 76 people while trying to get rid of the body of someone he had strangled in the basement of the rundown apartment complex on the orders of a drug dealer. The shocking and unexpected confession came when the man was testifying at an ongoing inquiry into the causes of the fire in August at an apartment building in downtown Johannesburg, which was one of South Africa's worst disasters. The 29-year-old man, whose identity wasn't disclosed, had said at the inquiry that he had killed another man on the night of the fire by beating him and strangling him, according to South African media reports of the testimony.
A domestic dispute is believed to have led to a woman allegedly igniting the deadly blaze that engulfed a building in Commissioner Street in the Johannesburg CBD on Sunday, killing two people.
A fire early Tuesday morning claimed a two-story building in central Austin. The Austin Fire Department said it was likely the result of people inside trying to stay warm, and businesses nearby said they were not surprised as squatters are in and out of the building every day.