Hong Kong residents and experts defend bamboo scaffolding after deadly fire

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.

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)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran sent its response to the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal to end the Iran war via Pakistani mediators on Sunday, but U.S. President Donald Trump quickly rejected it in a social media post as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” — the latest setback to efforts to resolve the standoff in the Persian Gulf that has throttled shipping and sent energy prices soaring.

Iranian state media reported that Tehran rejected the U.S. proposal as amounting to surrender, insisting instead on “war reparations by the U.S., full Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, an end to sanctions, and the release of seized Iranian assets.”

Washington’s latest proposal addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the strait and roll back Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump's rejection of the Iranian response included no details. In an earlier post, he accused Tehran of “playing games” with the United States for nearly 50 years, adding: "They will be laughing no longer!"

Trump is giving diplomacy “every chance we possibly can before going back to hostilities,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told ABC earlier.

Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard publicly since the war began, “issued new and decisive directives for the continuation of operations and the powerful confrontation with the enemies” while meeting with the head of the joint military command, the state broadcaster reported, with no details.

The fragile ceasefire was tested when a drone ignited a small fire on a ship off Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drones entering their airspace. The UAE said it shot down two drones and blamed Iran. No casualties were reported, and no one immediately claimed responsibility.

Qatar's Foreign Ministry called the ship attack a “dangerous and unacceptable escalation that threatens the security and safety of maritime trade routes and vital supplies in the region." The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center gave no details about the ship's owner or origin.

Kuwait Defense Ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al Otaibi said forces responded to drones but did not say where they came from.

Iran and armed allied groups such as the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group have used drones to carry out hundreds of strikes since the war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.

Trump has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran does not accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program. Iran has largely blocked the strategic waterway that's key to the global flow of oil, natural gas and fertilizer since the war began, rattling world markets.

The U.S. military in turn has blockaded Iranian ports since April 13, saying it has turned back 61 commercial vessels and disabled four. On Friday, it struck two Iranian oil tankers it said were trying to breach the blockade. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy says any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial vessels would be met with a “heavy assault” on U.S. bases in the region and enemy ships.

Another sticking point in negotiations is Iran’s highly enriched uranium. The U.N. nuclear agency says Iran has more than 440 kilograms (970 pounds) enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons grade.

In an interview posted late Saturday, an Iranian military spokesperson said forces were on “full readiness” to protect sites where uranium is stored.

“We considered it possible that they might intend to steal it through infiltration operations or heli-borne operations,” Brig. Gen. Akrami Nia told the IRNA news agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an excerpt of an interview with CBS airing Sunday said the war isn't over because the enriched uranium needs to be taken out of Iran. “Trump has said to me, ‘I want to go in there,’ and I think it can be done physically,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Moscow’s proposal to take enriched uranium from Iran to help negotiate a settlement remains on the table.

The majority of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely at its Isfahan nuclear complex, the International Atomic Energy Agency director-general told The Associated Press last month. The facility was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in the 12-day war last year and faced less intense attacks this year.

Iran's deputy foreign minister warned against a planned French-British effort that aims to support maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz after hostilities are over.

“The presence of French and British vessels, or those of any other country, for any possible cooperation with illegal U.S. actions in the Strait of Hormuz that violate international law will be met with a decisive and immediate response from the armed forces,” Kazem Gharibabadi said on social media.

French President Emmanuel Macron responded by saying it won't be a military deployment but an international mission to secure shipping once conditions allow.

Several attacks against ships in the Persian Gulf have occurred over the past week, and a U.S. effort to “guide” ships through the strait was quickly paused.

South Korea announced initial findings from an investigation that said two unidentified objects struck the South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU about one minute apart while it was anchored in the strait last week, causing an explosion and fire. Officials have yet to determine who was responsible.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea; Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

Women walk in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A Revolutionary Guard soldier stands at the counter of a fast food restaurant in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The front page of the Sunday May 10, 2026, edition of Iranian newspaper, Jamejam, is seen with a cartoon satirizing the U.S. President Donald Trump that asks: "Open the the Strait of Hormuz" on a news stand in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Vehicles drive past banners showing portraits of the school children who were killed during a strike on a school in southern town of Minab on Feb. 28, at Tajrish square in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU is docked after being damaged from a fire following an explosion in the Strait of Hormuz, at a port in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Friday, May 8, 2026. (Kim Sang-hun/Yonhap via AP)

Container ships sit at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, May 2, 2026.(Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)