New fire-tested scaffolding nets go up in Hong Kong as delayed construction work resumes
The Construction Industry Council has ordered 50,000 new scaffolding nets for projects halted across the city after the material was found to be a factor in the deadly Tai Po fire.
Scaffolding nets that have been rigorously tested for fire safety started going up at construction sites around Hong Kong in late January 2026. The first batch of nets arrived almost two months after 168 people died in a fire at a housing complex being renovated in the city’s Tai Po district. The site and hundreds of other construction projects across the city were later found to have been using nets that were insufficiently fire resistant. Hong Kong’s Construction Industry Council said it has received 12,000 nets centrally procured from the mainland China province of Guangdong and distributed about 3,000 so far. They are the first of 50,000 nets ordered and expected to arrive in phases by early February.