Cairo, Egypt
Reuters —
A fire at a major data centre in Cairo on Monday left four workers dead. It injured at least 22 others, according to Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, spokesperson for Egypt’s Health Ministry, who spoke to Reuters on Tuesday.
The fire, which broke out at a Telecom Egypt (ETEL.CA) facility and was brought under control the same day, led to widespread communication outages across the capital, state television reported.
Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Amr Talaat, stated Tuesday that services would be gradually restored within 24 hours.
In a statement on Tuesday, Telecom Egypt expressed condolences for the employees who lost their lives in the incident and pledged support to their families.
The fire disrupted phone services and internet access, with monitoring group NetBlocks reporting that national connectivity had dropped to 62% of typical levels.
In response, the Health Ministry shared alternative contact numbers for ambulance services across various governorates to ensure accessibility in case the main hotline was unreachable.
In addition to phone services, the fire also affected some digital banking operations, including credit card usage, ATMs, and online transactions, according to a bank source and residents on Monday. Banks had already closed for the day when the disruptions occurred.
Most of the injuries were due to smoke inhalation, Health Ministry spokesperson Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said.
The state news agency MENA reported that the fire was contained before it could spread throughout the entire building or to nearby rooftops.
A preliminary investigation suggested that an electrical short circuit likely caused the blaze, MENA quoted a security source as saying.