A deadly fire in an apartment complex in Hong Kong appears to have spread in part because the buildings were sheathed in bamboo scaffolding, a traditional building material that the authorities have been phasing out for safety reasons.

Dozens of people died on Wednesday in Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades. The blaze tore through the Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Tai Po, in the northern New Territories. The complex is made up of eight 31-storey towers containing about 2,000 flats that house about 4,800 people.

The exact cause of the fire is unknown but the bamboo scaffolding and green construction mesh may have helped it to spread quickly across the apartments.

Hong Kong is one of the last places in the world where bamboo is widely used for construction. The intricate lat

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