Hong Kong — Yip Ka-kui told CBS News he was about to take a nap when his wife called him from the other room to say a fire was climbing up the building next door, where their son lived.

"I was so nervous. I immediately got my clothes, phone and went downstairs," he said.

He never imagined that the blaze at the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex in Hong Kong would spread so quickly . It tore through bamboo scaffolding, mesh netting covering it, and then foam window coverings that had adorned the sprawling complex's eight buildings for ongoing renovation work.

"I got outside and saw a big fire," he told CBS News on Monday, as the official death toll from the blaze climbed to over 150 . "Fire was spreading everywhere, and I could hear the bamboo exploding. The fire spread to the ot

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