BEIJING — The high-rise apartment complex closest to Tianjin’s toxic chemical storage inferno was only 2,000 feet away, despite Chinese laws requiring a 3,200-foot minimum distance from hazardous sites.

The disclosure was among the new details emerging on Friday that suggested possible criminal negligence, mixed with rife speculation of an official cover-up, in the aftermath of the fire Wednesday night in Tianjin — China’s third-largest city and a major northeast seaport, about 90 miles east of Beijing.

With the death toll rising to at least 85 on Friday, more than 700 hospitalized and an unknown number still missing in the smoldering wreckage, the fire was shaping up as one of China’s worst industrial calamities. It appeared to expose the kinds of regulatory lapses that have plagued the country’s transformation into a global economic powerhouse.