A tragic fire at a prominent data center in Cairo has resulted in the deaths of four workers and left at least 22 others injured, as confirmed by Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, spokesperson for Egypt’s Health Ministry.
The blaze occurred at a Telecom Egypt facility on Monday, with state television reporting that it was contained the same day. This incident led to significant communication disruptions throughout the capital.
Amr Talaat, Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, announced on Tuesday that efforts are underway to gradually restore services within the next 24 hours.
Telecom Egypt expressed its sorrow for the loss of its employees and pledged support to their families. The fire severely impacted phone services and internet access, with monitoring organization Netblocks indicating that national connectivity had fallen to 62% of normal levels.
In response to the widespread outages, the health ministry provided alternative emergency numbers for ambulances across various governorates to ensure that citizens could still access critical services. Additionally, the fire affected some digital banking operations, impacting credit card transactions, ATM services, and online banking, according to sources from local banks and residents. Regular banking services had been suspended for the day as a result of the incident.
Most of the injuries reported were due to smoke inhalation, Ghaffar noted. State news agency MENA reported that the fire’s spread was contained, preventing it from engulfing the entire building and neighboring rooftops. Initial investigations suggest that an electrical short circuit may have sparked the blaze, according to a security source cited by MENA.
