JOHANNESBURG - 70 people dead in an early morning blaze at a hijacked building in Marshalltown in Johannesburg.
But there is a warning that the death toll will likely rise as rescue and recovery efforts continue.
First responders are still on scene at the corner of Delvers and Albert street.
The cause of the fire is unclear at this stage.
READ: Police Minister offers condolences to Joburg fire families
Johannesburg EMS Robert Mulaudzi said, "the cause of the fire incident is still a subject of investigation, however, since its a hijacked building, there's two or three possibilities, it might be illegal connection which could have started the fire, it might be some of the heating devices they are using, because we are told that there was no electricity at the time when the fire started."
"So they might be using other heating devices like paraffin stove, candles and any other things."
"So those are some of the possibilities which might be the cause of this fire incident, of course the extent of the fire incident was huge because of the combustible materials which you find inside the building."
"There's actually partitions inside the structure itself which makes it much more difficult for us as and when we are extinguishing this fire, and also there's this huge concern for us as and when we are conducting this fire fighting operation or the structural integrity since the building has been hijacked."
"We have to operate cautiously to make sure that we protect the firefighters on the ground."