Outside the high-rise residential building at Hong Fook Court, the burned protective net hung like a black spider web on the bamboo scaffolding. A major fire claimed dozens of lives, also igniting an urgent inquiry into building safety material regulations.

In November 2025, a catastrophic fire at Tai Po's Hong Fook Court in Hong Kong resulted in significant casualties. Investigations revealed that the plastic protective net on the building's exterior was suspected of failing to meet fire safety standards, potentially contributing to the rapid spread of the fire. This tragedy has triggered widespread societal concern regarding the safety standards of construction protective nets.

Plastic protective nets, a common safety facility on construction sites, have flame retardancy that directly impacts the safety of high-altitude work environments.

Flame Retardancy of Protective Nets

The common green or blue safety nets seen on construction sites are professionally known as fine-mesh vertical safety nets, primarily made of polyethylene. This type of protective net utilizes a special weaving method to form a straight-chain multi-door structure, ensuring secure knots that do not slip and maintaining the mesh's shape.

Qualified flame-retardant safety protective nets must meet specific flame retardancy standards. Taking a 2000-mesh flame-retardant safety net as an example, its flame retardancy requirements are: after-flame time ≤ 4 seconds, afterglow time ≤ 4 seconds. This means that even if exposed to an ignition source, flames will not continuously spread across the net surface.

The Hong Kong Buildings Department has clear flame-retardant requirements for building protection nets, mandating that they must comply with British Standard BS 5867-2:2008 or other equivalent international standards. These standards specifically stipulate that protective screens should be made of flame-retardant materials.

However, in reality, many projects, in order to cut costs, may use protective nets that fail to meet these standards. Materials like polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride are inherently flammable. Without special flame-retardant treatment, they can ignite and burn rapidly once exposed to a fire source.

Function and Selection Criteria for Protective Nets

The primary function of plastic construction protective nets is to prevent falling objects from injuring personnel or causing fires from heights. Fine-mesh safety nets can effectively block the fall of small objects like bricks and gravel.

Beyond fall protection, these nets also serve to reduce dust and noise pollution and improve the appearance of construction sites. High-quality protective nets feature high strength, good elasticity, and easy installation, along with resistance to aging and corrosion.

Multiple factors must be considered when selecting protective nets. In coastal areas like Qingdao, corrosion-resistant materials are needed; in windy environments, wind resistance must be considered; in low-temperature conditions, special low-temperature models should be chosen, as ordinary plastic nets can become brittle below -5°C.

The price varies significantly for protective nets made of different materials. Polyethylene nets are lower cost (approx. 5-8 RMB/square meter), suitable for short-term projects; polyester fiber nets are mid-priced (10-15 RMB/square meter) with better wind resistance; while stainless steel wire nets are more expensive (30-50 RMB/square meter) but can have a service life exceeding 8 years.

The Importance of Regulation and Maintenance

The safety performance of protective nets depends not only on the material itself but also on correct installation and regular maintenance. For concrete structures, the use of expansion bolts is recommended for fixing, with spacing not exceeding 80 centimeters.

After installation, the net surface sag should be less than 5%. Excessive tightness increases anchor point load, while excessive looseness affects protective effectiveness. All metal fittings require edge treatment to prevent exposed wires from causing injuries.

During routine maintenance, visual inspections should be conducted monthly, focusing on whether the net body has any cuts (tears exceeding 3 cm require immediate replacement) and whether connectors are loose. In typhoon-prone regions, inspections should be more frequent.

Cheung Siu-kit, Chairman of the Hong Kong Construction Industry Employees General Union, pointed out that bamboo scaffold fires are not uncommon. The cause is often the accumulation of flammable materials like construction waste and paper on the scaffolding, where a single cigarette butt can potentially start a major fire. Therefore, keeping scaffolding clean​ is equally as important as using flame-retardant materials.

The mainland Chinese construction industry has gradually been adopting steel enclosures or metal climbing frames to replace traditional plastic protective nets. These materials are non-combustible, fundamentally eliminating the possibility of the protective net itself burning.

The Hong Kong Buildings Department has recently issued a circular to all registered construction professionals and contractors, repeatedly reminding them to ensure that construction protective nets comply with flame retardancy performance standards.

Regular inspection, standardized maintenance, and strict regulation are equally as important as the flame-retardant properties of the material itself. The tragedy at Hong Kong's Hong Fook Court warns us that the primary imperative of a safety protective net​ is always "safety."