Ramses Exchange Fire: Egyptian par excellence

Watani

23-07-2025

The Ramses Exchange disaster is neither the first of its kind, nor will it be the last as long as Egyptian conditions remain unchanged.
On 7 July a huge fire erupted in the main central telecom building situated on Ramses Street, one of Cairo's oldest and busiest
telecommunications hubs, and a focal point of Internet services in Egypt. The fire which persisted over two days amid arduous efforts by firefighters to put it off, claimed four lives and 27 injured from among those who worked at the building. The fire halted phone calls and disrupted Internet access nationwide impacting digital banking services such as bank cards, ATM machines and online transactions, all of which could not be accessed.
What I write today as I assess the event is definitely not a call for despair nor an attempt to spread pessimism. Quite the contrary, I am confident that our country is moving forward and making steady progress in many fields, as testified by reports of international institutions, and the reality of our daily lives. However true love for our country calls for honest reflection. Between blind praise and destructive pessimism lies a wide space that allows for balanced assessment, and sounds alarm at disconcerting conditions. The aim is to rectify hazards that threaten our nation's path towards security and sustainable development.
I stand astounded as I contemplate the Ramses Exchange fire which I insist on branding an Egyptian disaster par excellence. Such a calamity will not be the last as long as underlying conditions remain unchanged. By 'conditions', I refer to guaranteeing the security of crucial institutions and equipping them with hazard prevention systems that automatically activate at the first sign of danger. To say nothing of periodic inspection of the protection and safety mechanisms to ensure their flawless operation when the need arises.
As I write this, the technical causes of the fire have not been announced; investigations are ongoing by technical experts and the prosecution. That should uncover what happened, and hold accountable those responsible for it. I reflect here, however, on what took place in the wake of the devastating fire which consumed the building and gripped with panic everyone in the vicinity, as real fear spread of the situation spiralling out of control. Had this occurred, as it did in past cases and would inevitably occur in future cases if conditions remain unchanged, we would have had to confront a horrific scene. And we could only have ourselves to blame for the disgraceful failure in safety and protection measures, and the alarming level of negligence in securing vital facilities.
I go back to what I learned as an architecture student more than 50 years ago, about the basics of safeguarding buildings against fire hazards. Buildings whether residential, commercial, industrial, or public, must be fitted with alarm systems designed to detect hazards such as high temperature, smoke or flames. The alarms are programmed to trigger automatically, at the first sign of danger, parallel to safety systems that would isolate the jeopardised section from other sections in the building to prevent the spread of fire. This would be done through activating automatic closure of fire-resistant doors around the impacted section. Simultaneously, the building's anti-fire devices whether water, foam, or carbon monoxide sprinklers, would deploy automatically. These integrated systems are designed to contain and fight the fire until the firefighters arrive. They are designed to make a building self-sufficient in fighting the danger of fire; professional firefighting is required only for big uncontrolled fires.
Given the nature of the Ramses Exchange building, with its dense network of cables and communication pathways, security measures should include systems for immediate cut-out of electrical power and any other source of power, to prevent the uncontrolled spread of fire or related hazards through these networks.
I do not allude here to modern state-of-the-art technology that we may be unfamiliar with or that cannot be applied to our facilities. What I talk of are long-established mechanisms which I am sure were either installed in the facilities when they were constructed some 50 years ago, or were later added. So where is the problem? The real calamity here lies in the absent role of industrial security and civil protection. This role is not limited to equipping facilities with alarm and protection infrastructure, but extends to the strict enforcement of alarm testing systems, routine inspection, and ensuring the efficiency of alarm and protection systems so that if ever there is an emergency, these systems work as they were designed to.
Talk about systematic testing of civil defence and alarm systems leads me to highlight a tragic reality we live through, the dangers of which we only realise when disaster strikes. As with so many disasters, we brush them off as fate rather than failure to anticipate and prepare for danger. In many countries, buildings and facilities are fitted with civil defence and alarm systems. These include routine mock alarms in all public buildings: schools, hotels, offices, malls, hospitals, industrial plants, sports venues, or service facilities. Mock alarms test two crucial matters: the efficiency of evacuation procedures under emergency conditions, including safely navigating escape routes during power cuts; and test the operation of alarm and resistance systems and networks depending on the type of threat. Unfortunately, we never hear of such proactive measures taking place in Egypt. Peculiarly, we have an authority called the Civil Defence Authority, yet its role appears to be limited to setting the safety regulations needed upon licensing buildings to ensure they are equipped for adequate civil defence. But this is it, nothing more.
Now we come to the heart of the matter: the critical role of fire trucks, seen by everybody as the first and last line of rescue from fires. What have we done, then, to ensure that fire trucks can promptly reach the site of a fire to contain the blaze before it spirals out of control? And before I go on, let me stress that the problem does not involve fire trucks alone; it extends to all emergency response vehicles including ambulances and police cars. Once an emergency occurs, our congested, chaotic traffic constitutes a huge obstacle that deters and delays the arrival of prompt rescue. We lack any traffic discipline that forces drivers to respect lane markings; drivers occupy multiple lanes and casually drift between them, a four-lane road ends up clogged with seven or eight haphazard rows of vehicles, and a constant swarm of motorcycles aggressively weaves way between cars. What can a wailing siren of police, ambulance, or fire truck achieve?
The plea for some passageway to save lives, respond to crises, or extinguish fires goes almost unanswered for practical on-the-ground reasons.
I have outlined in detail the severe, perilous shortcomings that put our lives and buildings under great hazard, in the hope of working to reverse the truly grim situation. Only then can safety find its way into our lives.
Watani International
18 July 2025 Comments
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