A deadly fire at an apartment complex in Hong Kong appears to have spread partly because the buildings were covered with bamboo scaffolding, a traditional building material that authorities are phasing out for safety reasons.
Dozens of people died on Wednesday in Hong Kong’s worst fire in decades. The fire engulfed the Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Tai Po in the northern New Territories. The complex is made up of eight 31-storey towers with approximately 2,000 flats housing approximately 4,800 people.
The exact cause of the fire is unknown, but the bamboo scaffolding and green construction netting may have helped it spread rapidly throughout the apartment.
Hong Kong is one of the last places in the world where bamboo is widely used for construction. Intricate lattices of pillars tied together with zip ties and wrapped around gleaming skyscrapers are a ubiquitous sight throughout the city.
Bamboo is valued because it is lighter and cheaper than metal alternatives. Its use in construction is also seen as an art in itself, with bamboo towers depicted in Han Dynasty scroll paintings dating back 2,000 years. The plant is abundant in southern China, although most construction sites in the mainland now use metal scaffolds as standard.
In March the government said it would begin phasing out the use of bamboo in favor of fire-resistant steel due to safety concerns. It states that it will be necessary to use metal frames in 50% of public construction works. As well as being fire resistant, metal withstands Hong Kong’s humid climate better than bamboo.
According to official figures, 23 people have died in industrial accidents involving bamboo scaffolds since 2018.
But the Hong Kong and Kowloon Bamboo Scaffolding Workers Union has previously said it opposes bamboo retirement. The natural variation in size and shape of the poles means that tying them together into a scaffold requires the skilled eye of bamboo artisans, who fear that their livelihoods could be at risk if Hong Kong switches to steel frames.
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