Bamboo scaffolding, a centuries-old method that was historically ubiquitous in Hong Kong, is underneath scrutiny for its function within the metropolis’s deadliest fireplace in additional than a century.
At the very least 55 individuals have died, and a whole lot are nonetheless lacking since scaffolding at a housing property in Tai Po district caught fireplace on Wednesday, in keeping with the most recent authorities figures.
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Bamboo is affordable, light-weight, and robust sufficient to face up to town’s many typhoons and tropical storms. A whole bunch of bamboo poles can usually be seen lashed collectively on the facet of a contemporary workplace tower.
However may one among Hong Kong’s iconic symbols even have served because the kindling for one among its most horrific tragedies in a long time?
How is bamboo scaffolding used?
Buildings or housing estates – just like the one in Tai Po district – encased in bamboo throughout vital renovation initiatives should not a uncommon sight within the city-state. Generally, the scaffolding can stay up for a yr or extra.
Bamboo scaffolding is constructed by speciality staff generally known as “spiders”. They lash collectively bamboo poles to construct intricate grid-like scaffolding that’s then usually coated in extra netting to catch development supplies.
Whereas the usage of bamboo has pale in different components of Asia, it has been laborious to interchange it fully in Hong Kong, even with choices akin to steel scaffolding, stated consultants.
“It’s gentle, low cost and quick to construct with,” Ehsan Noroozinejad, a senior researcher and development skilled at Western Sydney College, Australia, informed Al Jazeera. “Crews carry poles by hand, lower them on web site, and wrap awkward facades with out cranes. That velocity and adaptability maintain initiatives transferring and prices down.”
As a result of it’s “gentle and straightforward to chop”, bamboo scaffolding additionally matches the slender dwelling atmosphere of Hong Kong, stated Xinyan Huang, deputy director of the Analysis Centre for Hearth Security Engineering at Hong Kong Polytechnic College.
However there are different causes, too, why bamboo is difficult to interchange.
“It [Hong Kong] has a protracted historical past, so it’s a custom, and it’s not straightforward to vary custom,” Huang informed Al Jazeera by electronic mail. “Any change within the development trade will meet a lot resistance from present gamers.”
There are 4,000 bamboo scaffolding staff within the metropolis, Hong Kong Free Press reported, citing union figures, though the trade is on the decline due to elevated competitors from steel scaffolding and an ageing cohort of staff.
Is bamboo scaffolding harmful?
Previous to the hearth, most issues round bamboo scaffolding have targeted on employee security.
There have been 22 deadly office accidents involving bamboo scaffolding in Hong Kong between 2018 and 2024, in keeping with authorities figures. Six accidents occurred whereas new scaffolding was being constructed, whereas the remaining befell throughout repairs.
Moreover the truth that bamboo is by its very nature flamable, additionally it is structurally weaker and fewer steady than metal, in keeping with Huang. He informed Al Jazeera that it needs to be phased out for bigger initiatives.
“I feel the bamboo scaffolding can be utilized for small-scale functions, akin to putting in an air-con unit and changing a window of a room. Nevertheless, the large-scale utilization akin to masking your entire constructing facade needs to be stopped. Maybe, a most space of bamboo scaffolding could be outlined in future regulation,” he stated.
What function did bamboo scaffolding play within the Tai Po fireplace?
The fireplace is the deadliest in Hong Kong in additional than a century, since a blaze in 1918 on the Joyful Valley Racecourse in British Hong Kong led to the deaths of greater than 600 individuals.
Bamboo scaffolding performed a giant function in spreading the hearth, in keeping with consultants like Anwar Orabi, a lecturer in fireplace security engineering on the College of Queensland, though it was helped by different supplies within the property.
The fireplace broke out on the scaffolding of one of many property’s towers on Wednesday, however the velocity with which the hearth unfold took many observers unexpectedly. Orabi stated the design of the scaffolding made it troublesome to maintain the blaze restricted to only a few flooring.
“In my viewpoint, the scaffolding introduced a path for the hearth to unfold vertically which compromised compartmentation. The fireplace ‘climbed’ the scaffolding, and ignited the a number of gasoline sources in individuals’s houses,” he informed Al Jazeera by electronic mail.
“Hearth can break home windows by imposing a robust warmth flux [flow of heat] which heats up the glass and breaks it. It’s also potential that many individuals left their home windows open leading to ingress of the hearth. This resulted in a multi-storey fireplace,” he stated. Warmth radiation and embers from one constructing helped unfold the hearth to the subsequent, he stated, finally engulfing seven towers.
Hong Kong officers additionally say substandard development supplies had been one other contributing issue. The South China Morning Publish reported that the netting positioned over the scaffolding didn’t adhere to the hearth code, citing native officers.
Senior police superintendent Eileen Chung stated extremely flammable Styrofoam boards had additionally been positioned in home windows within the housing property’s lifts, public broadcaster RTHK reported, serving to the hearth unfold.
Two administrators and one engineering advisor from the corporate behind the development have been detained, Chung confirmed.
Hong Kong’s chief, John Lee Ka-chiu, has promised that each one housing estates present process vital enhancements will now be inspected.
“The federal government has instantly organized for inspections of all housing estates throughout town present process main repairs, to look at the protection of scaffolding and constructing supplies,” he wrote on Fb.
