“I returned home from work that morning only to find that my parents died and my home was charred,” he said, adding that his mother and father had trouble walking because of illness.

“Someone or something must have caused the fire. I hope the authorities can release the result of their investigation as soon as possible.”

An initial finding by investigators suggested that the fire started in a residential unit at the back of an antique shop on the first floor of the 40-year-old building.

Firefighters said the blaze gutted the first six floors of the building. Heavy smoke billowed upwards to other floors making escape difficult, particularly when most occupants of the residential flats were elderly and asleep.

Escape was also hampered by items dumped in the building’s stairwell.

“Not many residents would want to use the staircase as it was full of abandoned objects and was barely visible,” said a 30-year-old occupant who identified himself as Liu.

Liu bought a small flat in the building in January. He said the building was so rundown that one of its two lifts in the west wing was shut down because it no longer worked.

“One time I needed to go to work and the other lift also broke down. I had to get help from the guard who used a torch light to lead us all the way down the staircase,” he said.

Liu said he was alerted by news reports of the fire.

“I was about to return home from work overnight when I scrolled my cellphone only to find that a big fire took place at Cheng Chung Cheng,” he said, adding that by the time he returned home, the fire had been extinguished. “I felt bad and I hope the authorities can quickly nail down who caused the fire,” he said.

Asked if he regretted buying the flat at Cheng Chung Cheng, Liu said he did.

“I bought it because it was very cheap, and I could afford it, but after I moved in earlier this year, I found out the flat had many problems, including a water leak, and electric and plumbing [issues],” he said.

Once the area’s most popular commercial complex housing cinemas, shopping malls and restaurants, the building became known as the “Number 1 haunted house in Kaohsiung”.

Business has been declining in the 20 years since the city’s economic centre shifted away from Cheng Chung Cheng.

“Cheng Chung Cheng was the busiest and most popular commercial complex in Kaohsiung 40 years ago, housing various high-end business outlets at that time, ” said Mao Kuo-yun, another occupant of the building.

The 58-year-old chef said when he moved to the building some 20 years ago, business operations in the complex had already declined. “Those business outlets closed down one after another over the years and the first six floors of the building were unoccupied,” Mao said.

Some of the units were illegally occupied by gangsters and homeless people, Mao said, adding there were often shouts and noises around the building in the middle of the night.

Mao, who lived on the ninth floor, said he was awakened by loud noises around 3am on Thursday and opened the window to find heavy smoke.

“I grabbed my cellphone and took the lift to go down the building with my neighbour, but on the first floor saw the fire. We then went to the basement where we found a fire escape and made our way out,” he said.

“I only saw four of my neighbours on the ninth floor,” he said, adding that the city government later put the survivors in a nearby hotel where they would stay for three days.

Asked what would he do after that, Mao said: “I don’t know. I had been out of job for five months because of the pandemic and the restaurant where I used to work has yet to reopen.”