Early Thursday morning, at least 74 people, including children, died in a building fire in central Johannesburg, South Africa.
More than 55 others were injured.
The fire broke out around 1:30 a.m. local time while most residents were asleep.
The "hijacked" five-story building was taken over by gangs and was used as temporary housing for migrants. These abandoned "hijacked" buildings are becoming more and more common in the downtown area of Johannesburg.
Authorities arrived at the scene of the fire and made their way through the building, floor by floor, in search of survivors and retrieved dead, charred bodies and laid them on the street.
The cause of the fire remains unclear, but authorities say there was no indication it was deliberate.
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa called it a "tragedy."
Wiseman Mpepa, who survived the fire, told CNN that he woke up to people screaming. The fire blocked the building's exit, so he broke his window but couldn't escape.
Mpepa tried to help other people in the building by directing them to a gate to exit the building, but that gate was shut.
They closed the gate. After that, I had no plan. I just sat (in my room).
Mpepa lived in the building with family members, including his brother, sister, and brother-in-law. He says he still doesn't know where they are.
I don't have any plan, because everything, I lost.
He also told CNN that he passed out from the smoke and didn't know how he got out.
The smoke was coming to me, after that I just fell down. Then from there, I don't know anything.
Kenny Bupe, a witness of the fire, told Reuters that the building's fire escape was closed.
There was a lot of people you know, a lot of people, smoke… people suffocated, a lot of people died because of the smoke, because there was a lot of pressure at the gate, some of the gates were closed.
Another witness, Omar Foart, told Reuters he lost his sister and all of his possessions in the fire.
Firstly I lost my sister. Three sisters I've already lost.
My sister left her small daughter, and my in-law hit the window and threw the daughter outside and the people (on the ground) caught the daughter while she was hot on the air.
This hijacked building was not a safe place to live. It was abandoned and failed to meet basic safety regulations.
Local authorities present at the scene described the building as an informal settlement. They noted that the apartment units, initially designed for accommodating two or three individuals, had been divided into multiple sleeping areas to cater to a larger number of people.
Although these "hijacked buildings" have been condemned in South Africa and attempts have been made to bring in some regulations, many South Africans have criticized the government for failing to fix the problem.
Sadly, this hasn't been the first fire in one of these "informal settlements" (AKA illegal housing for illegal migrants). Though this morning's fire is the worst in recent memory, hijacked buildings across South Africa have been set ablaze in the past few months.
Herman Mashaba, former mayor of Johannesburg and leader of the ActionSA political party, called the fire deaths "devastating" and "totally unnecessary."
Mashaba told CNN that hijacked buildings exist "with the full knowledge of our national government," adding that "in fact some of them are involved in this illegal activities."
They make life difficult for the owner of the building, reaching a stage where people just really abandon the property.
They take it over, then obviously because they are bullies, they obviously start charging rent out themselves and they connect illegally to the city's services… without paying anything.
These deaths could have been avoided.
No one, especially not children, should have been living in this overcrowded, unsafe building overrun by gangs, the homeless, and illegal migrants.
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