Four days after a devastating fire killed at least 77 peoplein a five-storey building in downtown Johannesburg, the government has yet to identify the cause of the fire.

Number 80 Albert Street in Marshaltown has been described by health and safety officials as a firetrap.

Preliminary investigations show that the fire was started on the ground floor, and many residents became trapped behind locked gates as it spread.

Mgcini Tshwaku, the Johannesburg councilman who oversees public safety, said many bodies were discovered behind a gate, kept locked to keep out burglars.

And there weren't just gates on the ground floor, Tshwaku said that there were similar security gates between floors, stopping people from moving around the building as the fire spread.

This, Tshwake told the New York Times, was the "the main reason that there's a high death toll."

This is what forced many people to jump from high windows in a desperate effort to survive. According to witnesses, a 15-year-old girl died after jumping from a window.

Aside from this, the building was packed full of flammable materials. Cardboard and sheets were used to separate the living spaces and electric cables hung from the ceilings.

The building was one of 600 illegally occupied derelict buildings in Johannesburg, crammed full of people too poor to afford even the lowest rents.

Its last health inspection took place in June 2019, about four months before the city officials raided the building and arrested 140 foreign nationals for illegally collecting rent.

This was the last time city officials entered the building before the flames of last Thursday's fire died down.

The government also seems to know little about the people, including a dozen children, who perished inside the Usindiso Shelter for abused women and why this disaster was allowed to take place.

Health officials have said that many of the victims were burnt beyond recognition.

Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda said 141 families were affected by the tragedy but didn't know how many were in the building when the fire started.