Hong Kong fire probe reveals fake safety netting and widening trust gap

Police officers near a fire-damaged residential block at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex following a deadly fire, in Tai Po, Hong Kong. (Courtesy: Reuters photo)

Hong Kong officials on Monday accused contractors at the Wang Fuk Court housing estate of wrapping its towers in cheap, non-compliant scaffolding netting and then disguising it with safer material near ground level to fool inspectors, as the death toll from last week’s fire rose to 151, the New York Times reported.

Substandard netting swapped in after typhoon

According to the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the problems began after a summer typhoon damaged the netting around the estate, in Hong Kong’s northern New Territories. Investigators say individuals linked to the project bought about 2,300 rolls of low-grade mesh from a local supplier for HK$54 (about US$7) per roll — material that did not meet fire-safety standards.

The netting is meant to catch falling debris from the bamboo scaffolding commonly used to sheath high-rises during exterior repairs. Instead, officials now believe it helped fuel and spread the flames that tore through multiple towers on Wednesday.

Seven days after the fire, more than 40 residents were still unaccounted for. Police said some bodies had been burned so completely that only ashes remained and warned that not all remains might be recoverable. Authorities estimated that the painstaking work of searching the towers and identifying victims could take another three weeks.

Fake compliance layer for inspectors

The alleged deception became more elaborate in October, after a separate scaffolding-netting fire in Hong Kong’s Central district prompted city-wide scrutiny of such materials.

ICAC commissioner Danny Woo Ying-ming said those involved in Wang Fuk Court feared random checks would expose the cheap netting. They then bought 115 rolls of compliant mesh at around HK$100 (US$13) each and attached this higher-grade material at the base of each tower’s scaffolding — precisely where inspectors typically take samples.

Earlier government statements that the estate’s netting met safety standards were based on tests of pieces taken from a ground-floor area unaffected by the fire. On Monday, security secretary Chris Tang conceded that those initial results clashed with what firefighters, engineers and residents had reported on site.

A second round of sampling, this time from harder-to-reach spots near windows and higher up the structures, showed that seven of 20 pieces failed fire-safety tests, Tang said. Some samples required firefighters to climb out of damaged windows to retrieve them.

Arrests in construction and oversight under pressure

So far, 14 people have been arrested, including engineering consultants, main contractors and scaffolding subcontractors. Authorities say the investigation now stretches beyond the netting to other materials used at Wang Fuk Court, notably polystyrene foam boards that appear to have accelerated the blaze.

The disaster has triggered broader questions about how Hong Kong regulates its construction sector and whether existing inspections are robust enough to catch corner-cutting on safety. The Buildings Department has ordered all contractors to audit the fire performance of protective netting and similar materials on their sites and submit test certificates within a week.

Officials say they have already inspected 359 buildings undergoing external maintenance and collected additional netting samples. But as checks have intensified, some contractors have begun hurriedly stripping mesh from facades.

“You can see the mesh being removed in Hong Kong because they are avoiding punishment,” said Jason Poon Chuk-hung, a civil engineer turned activist who had spent more than a year lobbying the government to tighten fire rules for scaffolding netting. “If you remove it, you can escape from the requirements.”

Grief, anger — and a national security warning

Alongside the technical investigation, the administration has moved aggressively to control the public response. Over the weekend, Hong Kong’s national security office issued an unusually blunt statement warning that it would act against “those with ulterior motives” who tried to use the tragedy to “destabilize national security.”

Local media reported that police arrested at least one man who had publicly called for an independent inquiry into the fire and for senior officials to be held accountable. Police did not respond to questions about the case.

To some observers, the emphasis on policing speech rather than reassuring residents about safety in other high-rises reflects a deeper legitimacy problem.

“It shows the lack of credibility that the government has with the local population,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London, noting that the authorities appeared more focused on dissent than on explaining how similar disasters would be prevented.

For families still waiting for news of missing relatives in Wang Fuk Court’s blackened towers, the questions are more immediate: how an ordinary maintenance project ended with flammable cladding, fake safety netting and a fire so intense it may leave no remains to bury.