How ‘highly flammable’ bamboo scaffolding fuelled Hong Kong’s deadliest fire
Residents of the Wang Fuk Court apartments in Hong Kong had raised concerns about flammable materials cladding the towers but effective action was not taken. What else went wrong?
Residents of the Wang Fuk Court apartment towers in Hong Kong had raised concerns about flammable materials cladding the buildings more than a year ahead of a deadly inferno, but authorities did not take action, a new reports suggests.
Residents alerted officials about potential safety violations in the renovation project of the apartment blocks, according to the New York Times.
People wrote to the city’s Labor Department saying that the netting and foam panels on the exterior of the building looked flammable.
What ignited the fire is not yet known and an investigation is underway.
Video appears to show the early stages of the fire that started at 2.51pm Wednesday local time.
Firefighters arrived six minutes later, by which time the fire had spread to the fourth floor.
The blaze then quickly spread to seven of the eight tower blocks in Tai Po district, killing at least 128 people and leaving 78 injured and 200 unaccounted for.
The catastrophic blaze has the people of Hong Kong and the world asking, how could this have happened?
WHAT ARE THE WANG FUK COURT TOWERS?
Wang Fuk Court is a large government-subsidised housing complex in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district occupied since 1983.
The estate consists of eight tower blocks, each 31 storeys high, with nearly 2000 apartments. Seven towers were affected by the fire, Tai Po district councillor Mui Siu-fung told BBC Chinese.
Some 4600 residents resided in the estate, according to a 2021 government census.
Nearly 40 per cent of the people who lived in the Wang Fuk Court housing complex are at least 65, or older, according to the census.
Some of them have lived in the subsidised public housing estate since it was built.
DID THE RESIDENTS COMPLAIN ABOUT VIOLATIONS?
In a statement to the New York Times, Hong Kong’s Labor Department said it has received complaints from residents about the construction cladding.
The Department conducted 16 inspections over the past 16 months and found multiple violations and warned the contractor. It issued six notices “urging improvement” of the building site.
WHY COULDN’T RESIDENTS ESCAPE THE FIRE?
Official said the fire raised temperatures inside people’s apartments to as high as 499 degrees celsius and ignited the bamboo scaffolding, which fell and blocked fire exits.
Foam padding around windows used for insulation also caught fire and blocked windows.
HOW DID THE FIRE START?
The cause of the blaze is yet to be confirmed by authorities, but it was revealed that the high-rises were undergoing construction work and covered in bamboo scaffolding – a practice common in Hong Kong.
Officials said the fire was exacerbated by flammable construction materials including netting, canvas tarpaulin and plastics sheets.
“The bamboo scaffold acted as a continuous external fuel path,” Senior Researcher from the Urban Transformations Research Centre at Western Sydney University Dr Ehsan Noroozinejad said.
“Dry culms have high surface-area-to-mass ratios and, when wrapped with plastic mesh, create a ventilated ‘chimney’ that supports rapid flame spread and radiant preheating of the next bay.
“This isn’t a craftsmanship issue but a materials-and-configuration problem: a combustible, porous frame placed against an occupied high-rise with few intentional breaks.”
Sections of charred scaffolding fell from the burning blocks and flames could be seen inside apartments, further adding to the blaze.
The close proximity of the buildings also allowed the flames to travel across from tower blocks.
Fire services said the wind and drifting debris likely spread the fire from one building to another.
WHY WAS BAMBOO USED?
Bamboo has been used as a favourite construction material in Hong Kong and can be dated back to the Great Wall of China.
Its light weight, transferability and cost effectiveness lead it to being a common choice for construction workers and Hong Kong is one of the only places that continues to use it.
Each pole is bound together with zip ties to form lattices, which workers use to scale the building.
When the government ordered to reduce the use of the wooden construction material the Hong Kong and Kowloon Bamboo Scaffolding Workers Union opposed it, fearing thousands of bamboo masters would lose their livelihoods.
WILL BAMBOO SCAFFOLDING BE BANNED?
Hong Kong authorities will immediately inspect all housing estates undergoing major work following the disaster, city leader John Lee said.
The city’s number-two official Eric Chan told a news conference it was “imperative to expedite the full transition to metal scaffolding”.
The Development Bureau announced in March this year that it was time to phase out bamboo scaffolding in favour of metal, following mainland China’s lead.
It planned to “drive a wider adoption of metal scaffolds in public building works” for safety reasons.
“It’s time for change – to remove outdated practices and adopt modern methods of fire safety and protection. Bamboo scaffolding is highly flammable, and strict building regulations should be imposed to ban its use,” Professor Guan Yeoh from the School of Mechanical at the University of New South Wales said.
“By eliminating the use of bamboo scaffolding, the risk of extensive building damage and human fatalities could be dramatically reduced.”
In the past eight years, until the Tai Po District tragedy, there have been 23 deaths related to the practice.
The Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims also announced their support for bamboo scaffolding to be phased out.
WHO IS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THIS HORROR?
Police arrested three men, two directors and an engineering consultant of a construction company aged between 52 and 68, who have since been accused of “gross negligence.”
“We have reason to believe that those in charge at the company were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties,” a police spokesperson said.
On Friday they arrested eight more people, including consultants and subcontractors.
The case mirrors that Grenfell Tower where, in 2017, the unsafe cladding culminated in the death of 72 people, with 18 victims being children.
It lead to a seven-year public inquiry into the tragedy.
COULD MORE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SAVED?
Residents of Wang Fuk Court, located in Hong Kong’s northern district of Tai Po, said that they did not hear any fire alarms and had to go door-to-door to alert neighbours to the danger.
“The fire spread so quickly. I saw one hose trying to save several buildings, and I felt it was far too slow,” said a man surnamed Suen.
“Ringing doorbells, knocking on doors, alerting the neighbours, telling them to leave – that’s what the situation was like,” he said.
Fire services chief Andy Yeung said investigators had found that alarm systems in all eight blocks “were malfunctioning”.
WHAT IS BEING DONE TO HELP THE DISPLACED?
Hong Kong’s government said it was setting up a HK$300 million ($A59 million) fund to help victims of the fire.
City authorities said they had opened nine shelters and were organising temporary accommodation and emergency funds for those who had lost their homes.
Activities around Hong Kong’s legislative elections, set to take place on December 7, have been suspended.
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Originally published as How ‘highly flammable’ bamboo scaffolding fuelled Hong Kong’s deadliest fire
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