Cairo Telecommunications Building Hit With 2nd Fire in a Week
The fire on Thursday in central Cairo at a building known as the Ramses Exchange was much smaller than the one on Monday and was quickly extinguished, the media company Al Ahram reported, citing local authorities.
There was no official information about the cause of either fire. Egyptian prosecutors said they had launched an investigation.
The telecommunications exchange is run by state-owned Telecom Egypt and is one of many handling phone and internet services. Officials said that services had largely been restored, but some Egyptians still complained on Friday of patchy internet connections, especially in the area near the Ramses Exchange.
The earlier blaze killed at least four people and injured at least two dozen others, according to the local government. Internet connectivity dropped to about 40 percent of normal levels, according to NetBlocks, a group that tracks internet outages.
The fire also disrupted the stock exchange and banking sectors and delayed flights, according to local news reports, with some Egyptians posting photos on social media of air travelers using handwritten boarding passes. Customers were unable to buy train tickets for nearly two days in parts of the country, according to local media. The stock exchange reopened on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly visited the exchange on Wednesday and said the government would produce a recovery plan to ensure that the building returned to full operation as soon as possible, the Egyptian cabinet said in a statement.
The fire on Monday started on a floor that houses equipment run by telecommunications operators, the nation's Ministry of Communications said in a statement. Despite the presence of fire suppression equipment, the blaze quickly spread to other floors, it said.
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