1 Introduction

Scaffolding [1, 2] is important in building construction and refurbishment. There are many problems associated with scaffolding as reported [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Workers in Hong Kong are protected by the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance [11, 12]. Accident scenarios of scaffolding were studied by Szostak et al. [3]. Based on the information contained in the Information Technology Database, the course of the accident sequence was analysed. Further, scaffolding must not block the public access.

In a broader context, poorly monitored or managed scaffolding could lead to hazards other than blockage, such as by providing a means of fire spread. Many fires occurred while having refurbishments in existing buildings, particularly with scaffolds erected [2, 13]. As an example, a fire occurred in a 39-storey commercial complex on 15 December 2021 in Hong Kong [13]. The fire originated from an electrical switch room and spread to the scaffolding. As the building was under major renovation on some floors, the fire alarm systems and sprinklers were shut down. Customers and staff in a restaurant inside the complex did not even know there was a fire. Occupants had great difficulties in escaping from the building due to smoke. More than 1200 people were evacuated from the building slowly. Some went to the rooftop of the building which functioned as a refuge floor. At least 13 were injured, with one in critical condition. The fire incident exposed a serious loophole in fire safety provisions that require a serious follow-up in regulations.

Local safety codes [14,15,16,17] have to be complied with, which are related to means of access for firefighting and rescue, means of escape for occupants, fire service installations and equipment, in addition to codes [18,19,20], are related scaffolding. Designing the fire safety management and other facility management schemes [21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29] is important. Fire safety management should be implemented to ensure all fire safety provisions are maintained properly. Examples are replacing broken door closers for fire doors, maintaining fire detection and alarm system and ensuring adequate water supply. Another area is on assisting the fire brigade when they arrive on site, such as informing firefighters of the available fire protection systems and guiding them to the site.

A bad example of a scaffold erected along public access in a residential estate of Hong Kong is presented in this paper. This indicated inadequacy of current safety practices, and might be due to low punishment, say a fine of HK$36,000 as in the falling tower crane incident 2017. Evacuation strategy [30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40] has to be complied with the egress path carefully. On top of fire, falling down under wind is another threat [41]. Good management on controlling the use of stair would keep the means of access for firefighters free [14]. Smooth movement without any blocking would reduce the required safe egress time in case of fire. However, safety management cost (monthly salary of a security guard around HK$20,000) is much higher than the fine (a few thousand HK$ only). That might be the reason why resources allocated on safety is so low.

The aim of the manuscript is to alert relevant bodies to safety issue that are commonly neglected in scaffoldings, so that both workers and occupants will be better protected from accidents related to scaffoldings.

2 The bad example

A scaffold was erected along the public staircase to a car park one level below as in Fig. 1, blocking the passage for almost one year. At least there are two issues constituting possible violations of codes.

Fig. 1
figure 1

A bad scaffold example

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  • Issue 1:

According to code of practice each building should be provided with Means of Access (MoA) [17, 24]. MoA are the physical means of entry to different parts of a building to enable firefighting personnel to effect rescue and fight fire. In the example above, the staircase has a fire hydrant beside it, and so it is most likely functioning as a Means of Access in fires under local fire codes, similar to opening of fire doors in a building during refurbishment.

  • Issue 2:

Means of Escape (MoE) refers to the opposite. It refers to the provision of safe escape routes for people to travel from any point in a building to an unenclosed safe area [17]. In the example above, the stair might be a Means of Escape. Scaffolding arrangement is very hazardous to evacuation without ceiling protection. It is extremely dangerous, particularly in covering the stairs with slippery plastic sheets as in the figure, with ceiling view enlarged in Fig. 2 to indicate no protection. Further, workers using it should be protected by the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance.

Fig. 2
figure 2

No ceiling protection

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This is a good reflection on poor safety culture due to lenient punishment as in the tower crane accident [42,43,44,45,46,47,48]. Two serious incidents on building sites in Hong Kong, one in 2009 and one in 2022, in which a few workers were killed due to the collapse of tower cranes. Even for such a serious incident, the penalty is only 36,000 HK dollars! Disaster similar to a previous local big fire during building refurbishment might occur.

In the bad example above, such an arrangement lasting for several months is very dangerous. The estate management might be challenged in case of fire or any other incidents on workers related to occupational health and safety. Such procedures should not be allowed anymore again in buildings. Passing this message clearly to those responsible for facility management is necessary. Fire safety management [21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29] should be implemented properly, not just appearing as a safety manual locked in the safe. The major point in solving such a problem is not a technical issue at all. It is the determination on the management side to observe the codes of practice. This needs expenditures in employing more staff members in inspection, etc. If the penalty on safety incidents is commensurately raised, the management will be forced to do their best.

3 Possible challenges

On top of occupational safety works [20], there is a guide on scaffolds issued in 2006 by Buildings Department [18, 19]. However, there is no mention of how to erect a scaffold in staircase, nor about not blocking any public staircase access, in particular in the MoA [14] and the Means of Escape (MoE) [15]. A person responsible for scaffold safety should have checked regulations [19]. There might be inadequacy on resources for inspection.

General views from professionals on fire safety appear to be quite confusing at the moment. The following is a list of possible challenges:

  • General building regulations forbid blockage of staircases and MoA [14] by whatever structures or materials, including scaffolds.

  • It is understood that the MoE [15] and MoA [14] should always be kept free, no blocking at any time as being cut along as in Fig. 1, without reporting to the government departments responsible for fire safety.

  • There was even misinterpretation that the staircase can be blocked as in Fig. 1, if there is another staircase nearby.

  • Water might not be delivered smoothly from the hydrant. There is possible violation against the Fire Service Installations (FSI) Code [16] and others [17].

  • By no means slippery plastic sheets should be used to cover the stairs due to whatever reasons.

The scaffold might collapse and endanger people using the staircase. When fire occurs in the staircase, which is a MoA and a MoE, could become ineffective due to the presence of the scaffolding. These hazards might lead to injuries, legal charges, and penalty.

These points must be considered to avoid in the next review [18, 19] with penalty commensurate with loss. Further, workers are protected by the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance [12, 13, 20]. It is suggested that the estate management should take a more proactive role in minor works like this in the building, in daily petrol, and in providing a safe environment. On the government side, raising the penalty could be even more effective.

4 Potential danger under rain

The ground was covered with slippery plastics films as in Fig. 1. Some maids using the stairs almost fell down. Hong Kong has a rainy climate during the summer months. In 2022 there were 136 rainy days, with 29 days having heavy rain (more than 25 mm of rainfall daily). Even worse, on the rainy day with amber rainstorm warning signal for 2 h [49], the plastics films were full of water. Hong Kong Observatory reported that Star Ferry piers at Tsim Sha Tsui had wind speed of 100 km/hr. Local wind is also high due to turbulence, 50% of that given 50 km/hr.

Strong wind peeled up the adhesives and peeled the sheets out. Almost every pedestrian using that public access tended to fall down under heavy rain and strong wind.

As this is the only route to the carpark, occupants of the building are forced to walk on the plastics films. Slippery surface is always a threat as fall could cause serios injury, especially for the elderly.

Two questions:

  • Question 1: Anybody should be charged with murder or manslaughter, if somebody fell down and hurt seriously?

  • Question 2: Should the authority take a more active inspection role in keeping safety, or more stringent punishment scheme?

In addition, as such scaffoldings are inside the buildings, contractors might be less willing to spend money and time in strictly following regulations. One way out could be to rely on estate management of the building and also on reporting by the occupants.

5 Proper fire safety management to avoid violating fire codes

That scaffold has challenges against at least three local fire codes [14,15,16] and the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance [20] on safety aspects of bamboo scaffolding:

  • MoA code [14] for firefighters because car parks below had low ceiling height.

  • MoE code [15] for occupants because they might be blocked in the escape route.

  • FSI code [16] on Fire Service Equipment.

As reviewed by Malhotra in 1987 [21] and Lui and Chow [22], the main objectives of fire safety management are to ensure that in case of a fire:

  • All the fire safety measures provided will be available.

  • Occupants will be able to use the fire safety measures.

  • Occupants will be assisted to escape to a safe place with the stairs not slippery.

Therefore, fire safety management plays at least three roles:

  • To ensure that the fire safety measures provided are kept in good order. This means that there should regular inspection and testing of the safety measures provided, for example, at a 6-month interval, by trained personnel.

  • To initiate actions in case of fire which would help occupants to reach a safe place. The management should have a simple plan of action when a fire incident occurs, with management staff to guide or direct occupants to follow a safe route of escape.

  • To review the adequacy of existing fire safety measures when there is a change of building, change of building use and new technology on fire services installation. Thus any change in building use should be reported to, and approved by, the management, who will decide if additional measures are to be taken.

However, there are always problems while having refurbishment due to cost reduction, or some other reasons. Fire safety culture should be promoted [50,51,52,53,54] among occupants and even professionals.

To ensure fire safety provisions would function, appropriate fire safety management with a fire safety plan should be worked out by the management with reference to the building and the occupancy.

Situation might be improved because the Legislative Council has just approved to increase the maximum fine to HK$10 million [11, 12].

6 Fire safety plan

A fire safety plan should be prepared in fire safety management [21], on top of occupational safety [20]. There should be at least [11, 12] three components:

  • Maintenance plan for proper keeping of fire safety system.

  • Staff training plan encompassing training schemes for staff.

  • Fire action plan with well-defined actions to take in case of fire.

The maintenance plan should be implemented to avoid cases like Figs. 1 and 2 happening again. The following should be included to have good housekeeping:

  • While repairing damages, make sure no blocking of passive systems, particularly MoE and MoA.

  • The stairs must not be slippery.

  • Scaffold should not be erected to block the access, especially along the staircases.

  • Ensuring active systems such as hosereels and fire hydrants to operate smoothly.

  • The erected scaffolds should not interfere with smooth delivery of water from the fire hydrant as the firemen cannot operate the equipment smoothly. Figure 1 shows a bad example.

  • Information and drawings on layout, escape routes and information signs should be readily available to occupants.

  • Routine checking by facility management staff is necessary.

7 Safety culture

At the moment, safety management cost is very expensive and much higher than punishment of a few thousand dollars. For example, for good fire safety management, the company in charge might have to employ more staff on duty. This is a regular expenditure which could be ten times the penalty when accidents occur.

The proposal of introducing safety culture in handling public safety [50,51,52,53,54] on top of safety technology and safety management should be considered. These three elements should be operated as a tripod in Fig. 3. Here technology means the fire suppression systems (for example, fire hydrant, sprinklers, etc.) and monitoring systems (sensors, surveillance camera, etc.). This is the hardware side. On the other hand, “culture” and “management” belong to the soft side, involving human attitudes. Only when these three elements are present that fire safety could be realized.

Fig. 3
figure 3

Safety culture [53]

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Tighter monitoring and punishment might be needed if there is any violation of safety codes [11, 12, 14,15,16,17,18,19,20].

The concept of safety culture in the Asia-Oceania regions might be different from that in other areas [54], but useful in monitoring implementation of fire safety management on controlling fire service installations. This is similar to the difficulties in controlling driving speed over the limit of 50 km/hr in downtown! Perhaps, recruiting an independent management group to control is a solution.

8 Discussion

In Hong Kong the penalty for the tower crane accident in 2007 with causality was only HK$36,000 (US$4,500) [42, 55]. Consequently, very difficult to have investment on safety, even some guideline Safety & Health Circular No. 10/2009 Alert on Safe Handling of Tower-Crane Lifting Operations was issued by the government in July 2009 [44, 45].

There are many safety problems as observed in many building fires [56]. It is difficult for old buildings to comply with new requirements as revealed in the investigation of the big Garlety Building fires 1996 [57]. Upgrading of old buildings to meet new fire safety requirements was slow [58]. In upgrading hardware fire safety of old industrial buildings in Hong Kong [57], over 280,000 letters were issued to owners [58].

It is very difficult to convince senior management to spend resources to implement safety under this culture. Increasing penalty might alert the top management to be more responsible on safety. Government actions on having tighter occupational safety and health control and penalty were raised at the Legislative Council recently [11, 12, 48]. More stringent regulations with clear specifications and higher punishment should be imposed. After years of effort, the maximum safety fines in Hong Kong are now increased to HK$10 million and 2 years of imprisonment [11, 12].

Another example on charging senior management on unsatisfactory inspection on fire safety management is the big fire in a hospital in Beijing on 18 April 2023 [59]. Firefighters put out the fire in about an hour after arrival and evacuated about 70 patients. However, 29 were killed in the fire, most of them being elderlies with limited mobility. Twelve management staff including the director of the hospital have been detained by police. This is a good practice that top management should shoulder more responsibility on the Mainland.

Higher responsibility has to be shouldered by senior management in case of accidents as in Mainland, not just a fine of HK$10 Million and jailed only for 2 years. Without such responsibility loaded to management or owners, who will invest on safety and inspect safety management seriously as in this case?

A maximum fine of HK$ 10 million is still low. Salary of a 12-h watcher is around $ 20,000 per month, 24 h sitting at the entrance counter for 1 man-day is half a million dollars per year, without holidays. A fine of HK$10 million is only for recruiting 20 man-day per year. Will the owner invest on safety management adequately with such a low punishment? The cost is low because resources allocated to safety is too low.

9 Conclusions

A better working schedule for scaffolding safety for an existing building should be worked out. The Facility Management Office must designate a Building Safety Officer in the estate to advise and monitor refurbishment and repairing work. Something like Fig. 1 should not happen. As on the rainy day, the plastic surfaces became very slippery. Every pedestrian walking over tended to fall. Should it be charged as murder or at least manslaughter?

Facility management staff should be trained to handle fire safety. The management should at least increase the frequency of patrol for keeping proper discipline. Office staff, construction supervisors or even the Safety Officer should control the improper behavior of the workers.

The fire safety management schedule must be passed to the facility management staff clearly. Higher responsibility should be dedicated to the facility management office, or the Building Safety Officer.

Scaffolding might lead to serious occupational safety consequences. It must not block the public access for emergency evacuation and affect fire safety. A poor scaffold example erected along public access in Hong Kong is taken as an example to alert the hidden hazards. That scaffold had no protection ceiling and covered by slippery plastics sheets. This unsafe erection indicated inadequacy on safety management with possible violation of the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance. It might be challenged by possible violation of at least three local fire codes of practice, though the codes are not listed clearly.

As a conclusion, to ensure building safety, the following takeaways are suggested:

  1. (i)

    On the soft side, safety culture must be promoted among different stakeholders, including occupants and management, to make sure that codes and safety plans are followed strictly.

  2. (ii)

    On the hardware side, fire safety equipment and installation should be regularly inspected and tested.

  3. (iii)

    On the legal side, tighter government control with more stringent punishment must be considered.