Qiuxi Li
Purpose This paper aims to examine the 2025 Tai Po residential fire in Hong Kong to analyze the challenges of disaster risk reduction when hazardous practices are culturally embedded. Rather than reconstructing technical causation, the paper situates bamboo scaffolding within Hong Kong's distinctive urban, historical and political context, where the practice is tied to skilled labor, livelihoods and local identity. Design/methodology/approach The paper analyzes public debates surrounding the Tai Po fire through critical heritage scholarship and disaster studies frameworks, drawing on comparative insights from prior research on post-fire reconstruction in indigenous communities in Southwest China. Findings Controversy over bamboo scaffolding cannot be understood through risk denial or heritage attachment but reflects heightened anxieties about identity and autonomy among Hong Kong residents. Comparison with the indigenous case further reveals that resistance emerges when external authorities claim the right to decide how communities should live with risk and impose solutions. Originality/value This paper identifies contested decisional authority as the primary mechanism driving resistance to culturally embedded risk reduction interventions. By situating disaster governance within questions of cultural autonomy and political legitimacy, it moves beyond heritage-versus-safety binaries and clarifies the limits of purely technical approaches.