Hong Kong’s Problem Isn’t Bamboo Scaffolding

The world’s deadliest residential fire in more than four decades was still burning up a block of Hong Kong apartment buildings when pundits settled on a culprit: bamboo. Surely, the bamboo scaffolding that had surrounded the Wang Fuk Court towers explained how the flames tore through the complex so quickly. “There can be only one outcome,” the Independent declared. “The bamboo has to go.” But the disaster, which killed at least 160 people, reflects problems much mor