(CNN) Paper lanterns celebrating the Chinese New Year dot Yongda Road, but there is no holiday spirit.

This is the street in Tainan, Taiwan, where the Weiguan Jinlong high-rise building collapsed in a magnitude-6.4 earthquake that rocked the region on Saturday.

The high-rise is where a majority of the 40 earthquake deaths have been recorded.

At least 24 people were killed in the building collapse, and efforts continue to find another 120 people who are missing, according to the latest government figures.

The grounds around the collapsed building are crowded with emergency responders and volunteers.

Huang Zhijie, a representative of Lions Club International, said volunteers are handing out food, snacks, hot beverages, clothing and blankets. Two of the volunteers from his organization have relatives who are missing in the rubble, Huang said. They continue to cook meals even as they wait for news of their loved ones.

A nearby izakaya -- a kind of pub -- has been converted to a makeshift meeting hub and resting place for rescuers. Restaurants and hotels are opening their doors and offering food or shelter to victims or their families.

Investigation ordered

The Taiwanese government has ordered an investigation into the building's collapse, as images emerged showing tin cans built into the walls of the toppled complex.

Emergency workers came across the tin cans during the rescue operation, Taiwan's state-owned Central News Agency reported. They appear to have been used as construction fillers in beams.

Taiwan's interior minister and other officials said they would open an investigation into the building's collapse when the rescue operation ends, according to CNA. Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-te said he would order a probe as well.

However, an engineer told CNA using tin cans "for such purposes in construction was not illegal prior to September 1999, but since then styrofoam and formwork boards have been used instead."

The building is one of 11 that collapsed after the quake, CNA reported, but is the only high-rise to completely crumble.

"The building essentially collapsed onto itself," Elise Hu, an NPR correspondent who was in Taipei when the quake hit, told CNN. "When you see the aerial images around Tainan, the rest of the buildings are standing. But this particular apartment complex is as damaged as it is."

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'I was trapped'

A woman was pulled alive from the rubble Sunday night local time after being trapped for 40 hours, CNN affiliate SETTV reported.

The woman -- identified as Mrs. Tsao -- was found with her husband and son. The three were holding each other, though Mrs. Tsao was the sole survivor.

Five other family members are missing, SETTV said.

Another woman, Chien, her three-year-old daughter and her husband were in their bedroom in Tainan --Taiwan's oldest city -- when the earthquake struck.

Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan Rescue workers and excavation vehicles carry out their rescue and search operation on what was the top of the Weiguan apartment highrise which collapsed in the 6.4-magnitude earthquake in Taiwan on Friday, February 10, 2016. Hide Caption 1 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan A mother holds a picture of her son after a male body was recovered on February 10. Hide Caption 2 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan Blue cans appear to have been used in the construction of an apartment building on Saturday, February 6. Dozens were killed in the disaster and rescuers were still pulling people from the rubble days later. Hide Caption 3 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan Rescue personnel search for survivors at the site of a collapsed building, the Weiguan Jinlong residential complex, in Tainan on February 6. Hide Caption 4 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan A boy is rescued from a collapsed building in Tainan on February 6. More than 200 people were rescued from damaged structures, many from a 16-story residential building that collapsed in Tainan, officials told CNN. Hide Caption 5 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan Rescue workers search a collapsed building in Tainan. Hide Caption 6 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan Rescue workers search a collapsed building in Tainan. Hide Caption 7 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan Heavy smoke comes out from a collapsed building as rescue personnel search for survivors in Tainan. Hide Caption 8 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan A man breaks down after seeing the body of a relative recovered from a collapsed building in Tainan. Hide Caption 9 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan A rescue worker hangs from a crane while searching a collapsed building in Tainan. Hide Caption 10 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan A canine rescue team searches for the missing in Tainan. Hide Caption 11 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan Rescue workers remove a victim on a stretcher in Tainan. Hide Caption 12 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan A man is rescued from a collapsed building in Tainan. Hide Caption 13 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan Rescue workers search a collapsed building in Tainan. Hide Caption 14 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan Rescue personnel work at the site of a collapsed building in Tainan. Hide Caption 15 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan Rescue teams search the collapsed building in Tainan. Hide Caption 16 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan A woman is rescued in Tainan. Hide Caption 17 of 18 Photos: Magnitude-6.4 earthquake shocks Taiwan Li Bomin, an official from Tainan City Fire Department, told CNN that more than 100 rescuers were at the scene. Hide Caption 18 of 18

"I was trapped in a room in a building toppled by the quake," said the mother, who gave only her surname.

"The smell of gas was thick in the air, and I was worried that I would be killed by an explosion if not crushed to death in the collapsed building," she told CNA.

It was a frightening ordeal, one that she has dealt with before.

She lived in central Taiwan before moving to Tainan and survived the 1999 quake that killed more than 2,000 people.

"I moved to Tainan after I got married and now I have encountered another major earthquake," she told CNA.

'Ring of fire'

Before rescuers freed them, Chien and her family were trapped for three hours in their sixth-floor apartment in the 16-story residential building.

In all, more than 500 people were injured, CNA reported. Ninety-two people remain hospitalized late Sunday, according to Tainan's disaster response office.

Taiwan is in the so-called "Ring of Fire," an area in the Pacific Ocean where intense tectonic plate movement causes frequent earthquakes.

"Taiwan is very used to earthquakes and tremors, but this is far more significant than the island has seen in quite a while," Hu told CNN.

One woman told CNN affiliate EBC that rescuers had to cut a hole in order to help her family get out.

"Fortunately we were stuck under a space created by a baby crib and a closet door, so that things won't fall on us and air was able to get in," she said from the hospital, where she was being treated for a leg injury. "I was so afraid."

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The quake struck as many in Taiwan prepared to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

President Ma Ying-jeou canceled his traditional Chinese New Year address to oversee rescue and recovery operations at the national disaster headquarters, his spokeswoman said.

It's one of the country's biggest holidays, and some people have as many as nine days off, Hu said.

"If you can imagine something like this happening during Thanksgiving holiday weekend or Christmas travel, that's the equivalent of what's happening here in Taiwan right now," she said.