Cairo telecom building fire kills 4, injures 26; limited flight delays after blaze sparks outage
- Last updated: July 8, 2025 | 14:02
Gulf Today, Staff Reporter/Associated Press
Egypt’s Ministry of Civil Aviation announced that the country’s airports experienced minor delays in some flight departures due to a sudden and temporary disruption in communication and internet networks, due to a massive fire at Ramses Centre, a critical telecommunications hub in Egypt.
Egyptian officials said Tuesday the fire that engulfed a main telecom company building in downtown Cairo the day before left four people dead and over two dozen injured.
The four were Telecom Egypt employees who had been inside the building, the workers' union of the company said in a statement.
The blaze, which broke out at the landmark 10-storey Telecom Egypt building, prompted a temporary outage of internet and mobile phone services. NetBlocks, a global internet monitor, wrote Monday on X that network data show national connectivity was at 62% of ordinary levels.
The outage also disrupted air traffic, but the civil aviation ministry said early on Tuesday morning all halted flights have taken off.
The Civil Aviation Ministry stated that it activated its emergency response plan to ensure the continuity of operations, coordinating the departure of all flights without cancellations.
Dr. Sameh Al-Hefny, Minister of Civil Aviation, closely monitored the situation from the Crisis Management Centre at Cairo International Airport, in coordination with EgyptAir’s Integrated Operations Centre.
The ministry clarified that most flights are being rerouted using alternative methods, except for a limited number of international flights, for which operational adjustments are being coordinated with respective airports.
Meanwhile, Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, the health ministry spokesperson, told The Associated Press over the phone the number of the injured increased from 14 to 26, including those who suffered from smoke suffocation. All were hospitalised and some have been discharged, he said.
Egypt’s National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) announced that civil defence teams successfully contained the fire at the Ramses Centre on Monday evening after several hours of firefighting efforts.
The blaze had erupted in one of the upper-floor rooms of the building. In a statement, the NTRA confirmed that the fire was under control and cooling operations had begun.
The fire began in one of the halls on the floor housing telecom operators and spread to other floors due to its intensity, according to the Communications Ministry.
The Egyptian Stock Exchange halted trading on Tuesday due to widespread disruption impacting the efficiency of the trading system.
Amr Talaat, minister of communications and information technology, said in a statement Tuesday morning that all communications services will gradually be fully restored within 24 hours. He said that all services were transferred to more than one switchboard to operate as an alternative network.