Hong Kong
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A Hong Kong residential tower engulfed in smoke and flames Wednesday was surrounded by ancient building materials familiar to anyone who has spent time in one of the world’s most densely populated urban centers.
It’s almost impossible to walk down a Hong Kong street and not see a building surrounded by bamboo scaffolding, a building material prized for its flexibility, low cost, and sustainability.
Bamboo scaffolding dates back at least some 2,000 years to the Han Dynasty and has been used to build some of the city’s tallest and most iconic skyscrapers, including Norman Foster’s HSBC headquarters.
While considered a treasured piece of Hong Kong heritage, it has recently come under scrutiny because it is flammable and susceptible to deterioration over time. Although such disasters are extremely rare in Hong Kong, Hong Kong has a strong track record in building safety due to high quality construction and strict enforcement of building regulations.
The cause of the fire in the Tai Po area has not yet been determined, but authorities have arrested three people associated with the construction company on suspicion of “gross negligence.” At the time of the fire, the complex was under renovation and covered with bamboo scaffolding and safety netting.
“Bamboo is definitely a flammable material. It’s a very dry season in Hong Kong right now, so the chance of this bamboo catching fire is very high. Once it catches fire, the fire spreads very quickly,” said Associate Professor Shinyang Huang from the School of Building, Environment and Energy Engineering at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Bamboo poles are also “oriented vertically, so the fire basically spreads upwards without resistance,” he added.
Hong Kong leader John Lee later told reporters that the government would inspect all bamboo scaffolding in the city following the deadly fires, and that city officials were meeting to discuss a transition to metal scaffolding.
Authorities added that it is suspected that other construction materials found in the apartment, including protective netting, canvas and plastic covers, did not meet safety standards.
Police found the name of a construction company written on combustible polystyrene boards that firefighters found blocking some windows in the apartment complex. The fire chief said the committee’s presence was “unusual.”
Authorities are currently investigating whether polystyrene boards or other flammable materials may have contributed to the inferno fire.
This year there has been increased discussion about the future of bamboo scaffolding. The Hong Kong Development Authority recently announced that 50% of new public building projects built from March onwards will require the use of metal scaffolding to “strengthen worker protection” and meet modern building standards in “developed cities”.
According to the Hong Kong Labor Department, 24 people died in connection with bamboo scaffolding from January 2018 to August 2025.
This announcement had more to do with worker safety than fire hazards. However, the latter surfaced in October after another building covered in scaffolding caught fire in Hong Kong’s central business district. Officials later said they saw no obvious structural hazards when they inspected the site, but said an investigation was underway to determine whether all construction materials were grade compliant, according to public broadcaster RTHK.
Some observers around the world may be puzzled as to why Hong Kong, the glittering financial capital, did not phase out bamboo sooner. On Thursday, the hashtag “Why Hong Kong still uses bamboo scaffolding” trended on Chinese social media platform Weibo, with many calling on the Hong Kong government to follow the guidance of mainland Chinese authorities, who banned the use of bamboo scaffolding in 2022.
However, the move to remove the bamboo scaffolding prompted a backlash from local residents, many of whom pointed out that the technique was a cultural heritage that needed to be preserved.
Scaffolding is nearly ubiquitous on the streets, providing a visual complement to the near-constant construction and reconstruction that has defined Hong Kong’s character for decades.
Bamboo has not only contributed to the development of modern architecture in Hong Kong, but also played an essential role in the construction of the temporary Cantonese Opera Theater.
Some construction workers and unions also disputed the idea that bamboo is unsafe, pointing to strict safety regulations.
All bamboo scaffolding projects are required by law to follow regularly updated government guidelines. The thickness of the bamboo, the minimum strength of the nylon strips used to tie the platforms together, the proper spacing between poles, and many other details are specified.
Among these regulations is a requirement in the law that all protective netting, screens, tarpaulins and sheets used to cover building facades “shall have adequate flame retardancy in accordance with recognized standards.”
Hong Kong leader John Lee told a news conference that a special committee would investigate “whether the building’s exterior walls meet fire safety standards.”
“If there is any wrongdoing, we will pursue accountability in accordance with laws and regulations,” he said.
As investigators continue to investigate, Professor Huang said the initial cause was less important than external factors, which caused an isolated, small blaze to spread to seven buildings and kill dozens of people.
“I don’t think the cause of the fire is that serious because the building is designed to deal with random fire incidents. But it’s not designed to deal with a fire that spreads that quickly outside the building and eventually comes back inside the building,” he said, pointing to similarities with the devastating Grenfell Tower fire in west London in 2017.
Several other experts expressed similar opinions.
“Identifying the source of the ignition will be an important part of the investigation in the public’s interest, but it is largely irrelevant to the overall planning of this disaster,” said Anwar Orabi, a lecturer in fire protection engineering at the University of Queensland who had lived in Hong Kong for several years.
“The most important thing here is that the fire has spread beyond the location and building where it started,” he added. “A number of factors may have contributed to this, including a ‘highway’ for the vertical propagation of the fire and scaffolding which may have provided a warm nest for embers from adjacent buildings to ignite.”
