HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong residents, construction professionals and former senior officials are pushing back against the idea that bamboo scaffolding was a main reason flames spread so quickly in the city’s deadliest blaze in decades, as a debate flares over whether it should be replaced.
Authorities were quick to focus on the traditional scaffolding enveloping the apartment buildings at the Wang Fuk Court complex -- where the fatal Nov. 26 blaze spread from one tower to seven, killing at least 159 people. While much of the green netting covering the scaffolding incinerated, some of the bamboo scaffolding also burned and fell, and officials have stepped up plans to replace it.
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Construction workers walk past a building under renovation in Quarry Bay district after the deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, Thursday, Dec 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Construction workers stand nearby a building under renovations in Quarry Bay district after the deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, Thursday, Dec 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
People walk past the building under renovation in Quarry Bay district after the deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, Thursday, Dec 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Pedestrians walk past the removed scaffolding nets and construction materials in Quarry Bay district after the deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, Thursday, Dec 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Construction workers remove scaffolding nets from a renovation project in Quarry Bay district after the deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, Thursday, Dec 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Bamboo scaffolding is a common sight on Hong Kong high rises, though mainland China and places elsewhere in Asia have mostly begun using metal alternatives.
An industry union says Hong Kong has an estimated 3,000 workers registered to erect bamboo scaffolding, a construction technique dating back hundreds of years.
“I would be very cautious about blaming bamboo itself before the full investigation reports are published,” said Kristof Crolla, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Hong Kong whose focus includes bamboo architecture.
As a natural material, bamboo can be combustible, Crolla said. But “when it is properly used and combined with certified fire-retardant netting it is comparatively hard to ignite.”
During the fire, flames shot up the bamboo scaffolding erected for external maintenance work,-as well as the green netting draping it. But bamboo is usually not “easily ignited," said Raffaella Endrizzi, an architect who researches bamboo scaffolding who teaches at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “Focusing on bamboo alone risks obscuring more systemic safety issues,” she said.
Last week, as firefighters battled the deadly inferno for a second day, the city’s chief secretary for administration, Eric Chan, told reporters that bamboo scaffolding's fire resistance was “inferior” to that of metal scaffolding.
The city's top leader, John Lee, said officials had met with construction industry representatives to discuss timelines for switching to metal scaffolding. Metal should be used for safety reasons when possible, Chan said.
The initial cause of the fire is under investigation. So far, experts have found that some of the green netting wrapped around the bamboo scaffolding was substandard and that flammable foam boards were used to seal windows during the months' long renovations. Those were the main factors causing the fire to spread to seven of the eight buildings in the Wang Fuk Court complex, said Secretary for Security Chris Tang.
One note in Chinese left among a mountain of bouquets placed near the disaster site stood out: “it’s not the bamboo scaffolding that should be reviewed, but the whole system." Many others have posted similar comments on social media.
Putting the blame on bamboo scaffolding is a “lazy, scapegoating” move that distracts from deeper issues, Regina Ip, a former Hong Kong secretary for security who is an adviser to the chief executive, Lee, wrote Tuesday in the local newspaper Ming Pao.
“It would be a great pity to hastily decide on banning bamboo scaffolding -- which is flexible to use -- because of this incident,” John Tsang, a former Hong Kong financial secretary, wrote on his Facebook page.
“Anyone with common sense knows that bamboo isn’t so easy to burn,” he said.
Those defending bamboo scaffolding say it's uniquely suited to Hong Kong’s dense, irregular urban landscape.
“It’s light, fast, adaptable, and supported by generations of skilled scaffolders -- qualities that have shaped the city’s skyline and construction pace,” said Endrizzi, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The two cannot be so easily substituted, said the University of Hong Kong's Crolla.
For one, “bamboo scaffolding (can) be threaded through very tight urban conditions and irregular façades in ways that metal systems often cannot,” he said.
Ehsan Noroozinejad, a senior researcher focusing on construction and infrastructure at Western Sydney University, said aluminum or steel scaffolding is non-combustible and could last longer. But it's also heavier and can take more time to set up and dismantle.
Bamboo costs half or less than metal scaffolding, said Ho Ping-tak, chairman of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Bamboo Scaffolding Workers Union. He questioned how willing residents at older buildings needing external renovations would be to pay more.
Broader issues of suspected bid-rigging and use of substandard construction materials in other building maintenance and renovation projects have dominated discussions as the city mourns victims of the fire.
“Switching materials alone (from bamboo to metal scaffolding) won’t address underlying problems around specification, enforcement, and site supervision,” said Endrizzi. Policy changes should be based on evidence because otherwise Hong Kong risks disrupting a system that has worked for decades, while failing to crack down on regulatory problems and the use of unauthorized construction materials, she said.
Authorities have arrested at least 15 people in a probe into suspected corruption and negligence at the renovation project.
That has raised questions about government oversight, since residents at Wang Fuk Court raised fire safety concerns about the construction materials, including the netting, a year earlier.
After the fire, contractors at several other Hong Kong housing estates undergoing exterior maintenance work began removing netting covering scaffolding. On Wednesday, officials ordered the removal of external scaffolding nets at hundreds of buildings undergoing major renovations or maintenance. They are to be tested before they are reinstalled.
An independent committee will investigate the cause of the fire, said Hong Kong’s top leader Lee. He pledged systemic changes in the construction industry to prevent further such tragedies.
“We must uncover the truth, ensure that justice is served,” he said.
AP photographer Chan Long Hei in Hong Kong and AP business writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.
Construction workers walk past a building under renovation in Quarry Bay district after the deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, Thursday, Dec 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Construction workers stand nearby a building under renovations in Quarry Bay district after the deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, Thursday, Dec 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
People walk past the building under renovation in Quarry Bay district after the deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, Thursday, Dec 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Pedestrians walk past the removed scaffolding nets and construction materials in Quarry Bay district after the deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, Thursday, Dec 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Construction workers remove scaffolding nets from a renovation project in Quarry Bay district after the deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, Thursday, Dec 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
The Navy admiral who reportedly issued orders for the U.S. military to fire upon survivors of an attack on an alleged drug boat is on Capitol Hill for a classified briefing with top congressional lawmakers overseeing national security.
The information from Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, who is now the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, comes at a potentially crucial moment in the unfolding congressional investigation into how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth handled the military operation in international waters near Venezuela. There are mounting questions over whether the strike may have violated the law.
The briefing in a secure facility at the Capitol is with congressional leaders, including the Republican chairs and ranking Democrats of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, and separately to the GOP chairman and Democratic vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Here's the latest:
The Pentagon inspector general’s report released Thursday criticized the use of unapproved messaging apps and devices across the department.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had the authority to declassify the material he shared with others in a Signal chat, the watchdog found. But it also says the release of details about the strike on Houthi militants in Yemen violated internal Pentagon rules about handling sensitive information that could put service members or their missions in danger.
The report noted that the information that Hegseth sent — the quantity and strike times of manned U.S. aircraft over hostile territory about two hours to four hours before those strikes — “created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots.”
Hegseth wrote on social media: “No classified information. Total exoneration. Case closed. Houthis bombed into submission.”
The South Carolina Republican told reporters during a virtual news conference on Thursday that she’s going to finish her term but is “100%” frustrated with the slow pace of the House.
Mace was asked about reporting by The New York Times that she is looking to meet with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to discuss following the lead of the Georgia Republican, who has announced she’s leaving Congress in January.
Mace said she’s expressed her frustrations to House Speaker Mike Johnson, whom she supports and said she expects to outlast recent criticism of his management of the House.
Mace, first elected in 2020, is seeking the GOP nomination for South Carolina governor in next year’s elections and is not expected to run for another House term.
Protesters held signs that read “No Collaboration with ICE/DHS” and begged city leaders to create “ICE-Free zones” during a City Council meeting Thursday. It was the second day of a federal immigration enforcement operation in the city.
After public comment was suspended, and protesters refused to yield their time at the podium, City Council members paused the meeting and left the room.
As protesters chanted “Shame,” city police officers ordered them to leave the building. While some protesters complied, multiple others were pushed or physically carried out by officers.
Trump administration lawyers on Thursday accused plaintiffs of “throwing in the towel” with “procedural gamesmanship” after they moved to dismiss their lawsuit over the aggressive tactics of federal immigration officers in the Chicago area.
The coalition of protesters and journalists behind the suit called the dismissal a victory, saying the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” had largely wound down. But the case was on its way to a skeptical appeals court that had already frozen an order limiting agents’ use of force.
“The moment they have to explain themselves to an appellate court, they run for the hills,” said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer says a bill Democrats will bring to the Senate floor for a vote next week would allow for a three-year extension of enhanced health insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of this year.
Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised Democrats a vote on a proposal of their choosing as part of a path forward to ending the historic, 43-day government shutdown earlier this fall.
Schumer said every Democrat will support the bill. It’s most likely to fail, though.
“Republicans have one week to decide where they stand. Vote for this bill and bring health care costs down or block this bill and send premiums skyrocketing,” Schumer said.
A White House official said Trump would be making the trip Tuesday to discuss ending the inflation crisis he says was inherited from his predecessor, Joe Biden. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the trip hasn’t been formally announced. It wasn’t immediately clear where in Pennsylvania Trump would be visiting.
Last month’s off-year elections showed a shift away from Republicans as public concerns about affordability persist. White House officials said afterward that Trump — who has done relatively few events domestically — would put a greater emphasis on talking directly to the public about his economic policies.
The president has said that any affordability worries are part of a Democratic “hoax” and that people simply need to hear his perspective to change their minds — an approach also embraced by Biden, who in early 2024 went to the Pennsylvania borough of Emmaus to take credit for economic improvements after inflation spiked in 2022.
— Josh Boak
▶ Read more about Trump and Pennsylvania
Flags at the White House were lowered to half-staff in honor of U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, a West Virginia National Guard member who was shot Nov. 26, blocks from the White House, and later died of her wounds. Trump issued the proclamation “as a mark of respect for the memory” of Beckstrom.
Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, commented after seeing a video of two boat strike survivors in what he said was “clear distress” at a classified morning briefing.
“Admiral Bradley has a storied career, and he has my respect and have the respect of all of us,” Himes said on CNN.
“But what I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service. You have two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel were killed by the United States.”
President Trump’s effort to install political loyalists as top federal prosecutors has run into a legal buzz saw lately, with judges ruling that his handpicked U.S. attorneys for New Jersey, eastern Virginia, Nevada and Los Angeles were all serving unlawfully.
Now, another federal judge is poised to consider an argument by New York Attorney General Letitia James that the administration also twisted the law to make John Sarcone the acting U.S. attorney for northern New York.
A court hearing is scheduled to be held Thursday as James challenges Sarcone’s authority to oversee a Justice Department investigation into regulatory lawsuits she filed against Trump and the National Rifle Association.
James, a Democrat, is disputing the legitimacy of subpoenas issued as part of Sarcone’s probe, which her lawyers say is part of a campaign of baseless investigations and prosecutions of Trump’s perceived enemies.
▶ Read more about the Justice Department and Letitia James
The State Department has renewed a dire warning to Americans against any travel to Venezuela as tensions between Washington and Caracas have spiraled over U.S. military strikes against alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers in the Caribbean and signs that the Trump administration may be preparing for operations inside the country.
In an updated travel alert released Thursday, the department emphasized that U.S. citizens should cancel any plans to visit Venezuela or remain in the country if they’re already there “due to the high risk of wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, and poor health infrastructure.”
“All U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents in Venezuela are strongly advised to depart immediately,” it added. “Do not travel to Venezuela for any reason.”
At least one Republican senator is raising concerns about Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vaccine committee and the anti-vaccine voices it has platformed.
Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a liver doctor who’s been outspoken in support of the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, took to X to post the agenda of the committee, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. He noted one of the presenters scheduled for Friday is a trial attorney who’s worked with Kennedy to sue vaccine makers.
“He is presenting as if an expert on childhood vaccines,” Cassidy wrote. “The ACIP is totally discredited. They are not protecting children.”
Cassidy voted to confirm Kennedy as health secretary earlier this year but the two have repeatedly clashed over vaccine policy.
Adm. Bradley and Caine have just walked into the secure area at the Capitol where top lawmakers will also gather for the closed-door classified morning briefing.
The details about the strike on alleged drug smugglers are crucial as lawmakers question Hegseth’s leadership at the Pentagon amid concerns about the legality of the strike on survivors in the waters off the coast of Venezuela.
The newest member of Congress won a nationally watched special election in Tennessee this week that helped maintain the GOP’s slim grip on power in the chamber.
House Speaker Mike Johnson swiftly swore Van Epps into office, a speedy addition to the GOP ranks — in stark contrast to the seven-week long delay in swearing in the newest Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona. Johnson had refused to swear her into office during the government shutdown.
A West Point graduate and former state general services commissioner from Nashville, Van Epps defeated Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn to represent the 7th Congressional District.
Lawmakers have many questions for Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, who the White House has said ordered the follow-on strike on the alleged drug boat off the Venezuelan coast that’s drawn grave scrutiny.
The military attack reportedly on survivors in the water has led to questions of its legality. Some lawmakers have called on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign.
Bradley is expected to speak to top leaders of the congressional committees handling national security matters during a day of meetings at the Capitol.
The FBI has made an arrest in its nearly 5-year-old investigation into who placed pipe bombs in Washington on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The arrest marks the first time investigators have settled on a suspect in an act that had long vexed law enforcement, spawned a multitude of conspiracy theories and remained an enduring mystery in the shadow of the dark chapter of American history that is the violent Capitol siege.
The official who described the arrest spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss a case that hasn’t yet been made public. The arrest took place Thursday morning and the suspect is a man, the official said. No other details were immediately available, including the charges the person might face.
The pipe bombs were placed on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021, near the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees in the District of Columbia. Nobody was hurt before the bombs were rendered safe, but the FBI has said both devices could have been lethal.
— Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer
▶ Read more about the pipe bomb investigation
The peace signing Thursday will also open access to the region’s critical minerals for the U.S. government and American companies.
Lauded by the White House as a “historic” agreement brokered by President Trump, the so-called Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity between Presidents Felix Tshisekedi of Congo and Paul Kagame of Rwanda follows monthslong peace efforts by the U.S. and partners, including the African Union and Qatar, and finalizes an earlier deal signed in June.
The Central African nation of Congo has been battered by decadeslong fighting with more than 100 armed groups, the most potent being the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. The conflict escalated this year, with M23 seizing the region’s main cities of Goma and Bukavu in an unprecedented advance, worsening a humanitarian crisis that was already one of the world’s largest with millions displaced.
▶ Read more about the peace deal between Congo and Rwanda
The Pentagon knew there were survivors after a September attack on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea and the U.S. military still carried out a follow-up strike, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The rationale for the second strike was that it was needed to sink the vessel, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke Wednesday on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly. The Trump administration says all 11 people aboard were killed.
What remains unclear was who ordered the strikes and whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was involved, one of the people said. The details are becoming crucial as lawmakers have launched investigations and are seeking to determine whether the U.S. acted lawfully during its military operations.
Hegseth is under growing scrutiny over the department’s strikes on alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, and in particular the follow-on strike that reportedly killed survivors. Some legal experts and lawmakers say that the strike would have violated peacetime laws and those governing armed conflict.
— Lisa Mascaro
▶ Read more about the revelations
U.S. Navy Adm. Frank M. Bradley, accompanied by Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, right, walks to a meeting with senators on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump speaks during an event on fuel economy standards in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
