‘Disaster’: Renewed scrutiny of bamboo scaffolding in Hong Kong after deadly blaze
The deadly blaze at a residential tower in Hong Kong has renewed scrutiny over the use of a traditional material in its construction.
The devastating blaze at a residential tower in Hong Kong that has killed at least 55 people has renewed scrutiny over the use of bamboo scaffolding in construction projects across the region.
Three men have been arrested after flames and smoke tore through seven of the eight 31-floor high-rise buildings of Wang Fuk Court, a housing complex, in the city’s Tai Po district on Wednesday afternoon. Close to 300 people remain missing, while at least 60 people have been injured.
Police said that the arrested trio – aged between 52 and 68 – were arrested on suspicion of “gross negligence” in a relation to the level-five blaze, the most severe rating in Hong Kong.
Police said two of the men were directors, and the third an engineering consultant, from a construction company, and have been detained until detectives and fire officials can enter the building to investigate the exact cause of the deadly inferno.
The blocks, wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh, had been under renovation since 2018.
Senior Superintendent of Police Eileen Chung said officers searched a tower that was not impacted and found “every floor” had protective nets, film and styrofoam which sealed the windows. She flagged the materials did not meet Hong Kong’s safety standards.
Investigators suspect that the materials accelerated the pace of the fire, but could not confirm the theory until they could go into the towers, most of which are still smouldering.
Is bamboo scaffolding safe?
Prized for generations for its strength, flexibility and lightweight, bamboo scaffolding is used in the construction of new buildings, and renovation of high-rises and historic tenements each year, according to CNN.
An estimated 80 per cent of scaffolds in Hong Kong are currently created using bamboo.
“Steel is relatively stiff and strong, but it’s less flexible than bamboo,” structural engineer at British engineering firm Arup, Goman Ho, told the outlet last week.
“Bamboo on the other hand, has its own craftsmanship. You can build a lot of beautiful scaffolding in ways you’d never think of … It’s a culture we need to maintain.”
But questions over bamboo scaffolding’s suitability and safety have increasingly been raised by Hong Kong authorities in recent months.
According to Hong Kong’s Labour Department, at least 24 people had died between January 2018 and August 2025 in industrial accidents involving bamboo scaffolding.
Citing safety concerns, Hong Kong’s Development Bureau announced in March it will “drive a wider adoption of metal scaffolds in public building works”, aiming to replace bamboo with steel in 50 per cent of all new projects going forward.
Bureau spokesperson Terence Lam noted the material’s “intrinsic weaknesses such as variation in mechanical properties, deterioration over time and high combustibility”. Replacing it with metal would “better protect workers” and align with practices in “advanced cities”.
Chairman of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Bamboo Scaffolding Workers Union, Ho Ping-Tak, argued that the government’s announcement “gives the public the wrong impression that bamboo is unsafe, which has huge implications”.
“Bamboo is not unsafe,” Mr Ho told CNN.
A Development Bureau spokesperson said that adopting metal scaffolding in construction was one of many ways to improve site safety.
“Provided relevant legislative requirements on bamboo scaffolds and metal scaffolds are fulfilled, both types of scaffolds are safe,” they said, adding the government has “no intention to phase out the adoption of bamboo scaffolds”.
‘Immediately bring back the trauma’ of Grenfell
Associate Professor Matthew Bell, a building law expert at the University of Melbourne, told news.com.au that “the horrific images and stories from the fire will immediately bring back the trauma of bereaved and survivors at other building catastrophes, including at the Grenfell Tower in London in 2017”.
One of the most nightmarish incidents in the city’s history, 72 people lost their lives when the 23-storey social housing block in west London was gutted by an inferno that burned for more than 24 hours on June 14, 2017.
In its final report last September, a public inquiry ruled that the Grenfell blaze “was the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry”.
Though an electrical fault in the refrigerator in a fourth-floor apartment started the fire, the flames spread uncontrollably because of the tower’s cladding: flammable aluminium composite material that acted as fuel.
Deadly fires were once a regular scourge in densely-populated Hong Kong, especially in poorer neighbourhoods.
However, safety measures have been ramped up in recent decades and such fires have become much less commonplace.
Unlike at Grenfell – where “the flammable cladding was part of the structure” – “when you are finished with the scaffolding (like in Hong Kong), you can take it away”, Emeritus Professor at the UNSW School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mark Bradford, told news.com.au.
Associate Professor Bell noted that, while there have been “extensive reforms in the UK, Australia and elsewhere since that fire, the Hong Kong disaster reminds us that regulating the safety of our homes remains a complex and fragile balancing act in which we all have a stake”.
Originally published as ‘Disaster’: Renewed scrutiny of bamboo scaffolding in Hong Kong after deadly blaze
