there are many issue in this fire. first we look at the material issue first.
to me the no1 culprit is
1) the styrofoam board was used to to cover all the window to protect the window during renovation.
easy to light up under fire. not fire retard. This is the most dangerous as it is directly connecting to the building. there are 2 issues here. one being it is not fire retard and easily inflammable.
with the board on the window, the people staying inside doesnt know what is happening outside , and causes people to react too late to save themselves.

2) bamboo scaffolding.
There is a reason why the whole world move into steel scaffolding. steel scaffolding are much more consistent and stable. According to fire safety expert Goertz, bamboo has an "outer coating" that "actually has quite good fire properties". "It doesn't catch fire very easily. But once it does catch fire, the entire structure burns and the fire spreads upwards." Another special feature of bamboo is that the individual parts "practically disintegrate explosively".

3) the safety netting was not fire retard.
this is also an issue, but people tend to use the cheaper option. fire retard safety netting is much much more expensive than the normal type of safety netting. We also have this issue here. almost all our construction in malaysia are using non fire retard safety netting.



on construction method side.
the worst culprit
1) fire alarm was turn off.
during the renovation, all fire alarm was turn off, which causes many not aware of the fire breakout. This is actually outrageous.

2) 8 blocks renovate at the same time.
the reason why all 8 block are under renovation at the same time is really weird. Usually to cut cost, most contractor would do 1 block at a time, to save cost and easier to control labor. doing 1 block at a time, would also shorten and limit effecting the people staying there.

3) no bomba lift.
there was no bomba lift at the building which is weird, as the building was built in 1986. around that time, most of the world already making it into a law that requires bomba lift at every high rise building. Malaysia also make it into a law in 1984.

4) fire escape staircase or the lack of
well, there is a fire escape staircase at the building, but it is not considered a fire escape staircase at all, as it is fully open. As a fire escape staircase, you need to be fully blocked off from outside and all exit door need to be fire rated door. so as the fire break out, the fire can block the fire escape passage and people could not escape

On government side.
1) Lack off checking from authority.
how the renovation work of such huge scale lack of checking from authority. but this issue is also similar to malaysia, as most of our construction site, doesnt really follow all requirement, but still allow to carry out.

yes, that is the main culprit. there were also plastic sheet covering the building which is also a problem