Residents of the Johannesburg building that caught fire on Thursday, leading to at least 74 deaths, tell Daily Maverick their stories of loss and heartbreak.

Sphiwe Ngcobo lives at 80 Albert Street in Marshalltown, Johannesburg, with her family. An informal trader, she sets up her table outside the building each night. In the early hours of Thursday morning, she heard a commotion from inside the building, as though there was a fight, and asked another trader for help.

"We moved the table, but soon after we heard people shouting, saying the building was on fire. In the house were my two children and their father, so I ran inside. When I got to the second floor, I encountered chaos. People were running around, some scrambling to save what they could and some trying to escape the fire.

"I went for another door but it was locked. Some people broke the door down but it was still impossible to go inside because of the smoke and fire. I then ran outside again and alerted a police officer of my plight. He referred me to a Johannesburg Emergency Services official who said their hands were full as they were trying to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby buildings at that time."

"I carried on searching for my family until I found what I eventually did," she...