TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A survivor of a building fire in Kaohsiung that claimed 46 lives on Thursday morning (Oct. 14) has told his harrowing survival story to the media.

The man, surnamed Mao (毛), awoke to the sounds of panicked shouting and, glancing out his apartment window, saw plumes of thick black smoke swirling up from the bottom of the building. It was around 3 a.m., he recalls, per a CNA report.

"I immediately rushed out with my cellphone to take an elevator," Mao said, but found the exit on the ground floor blocked by a massive wall of flames. Mao then fled with other residents down to the underground floors.

The group then scoured the basement for a passage out, which they soon found. They escaped through the emergency exit just in the nick of time as one minute later power to the entire building was cut, which would have left them cloaked in darkness.

Mao said he was "very lucky," adding "I hope other residents got out safely." 

Looking back, Mao said taking the elevator was a very risky move, considering the power outage would have trapped them in the elevator chute and an almost certain death.

The blaze ripped through the 40-year-old Cheng Chung Cheng (城中城) building in the city's Yancheng District before finally being extinguished at 7:17 a.m., about four hours after the Kaohsiung City Fire Bureau received the first emergency call at 2:54 a.m.

What caused the inferno remains unknown at this stage, but the fire bureau said it suspects the fire started on the ground floor before spreading to the rest of the building, per reports. The current death toll stands at 46, with 41 injuries, though these figures may rise further as Fire Bureau chief Lee Ching-hsiu (李清秀) says his team is combing the entire building once again.