Two dead in Khawaja Tower fire; internet, mobile services disrupted across country
The fire has caused internet glitches across the country as the building houses two separate data centres of the International Internet Gateway (IEG) that provides bandwidth to some of the major ISPs of the country
At least two were killed in a fire incident in the Khawaja Tower - a 14-storey commercial building - in Mohakhali area of the capital on Thursday (26 October).
The two deceased have been identified as Hasnahena and Aklima.
The fire has also caused internet glitches across the country as the building houses two separate data centres of the International Internet Gateway (IEG) that provides bandwidth to some of the major ISPs of the country.
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The body of one of the deceased, Hasnahena, was identified by her husband Sony. She died while trying to climb down the building using a cable to escape the fire, Emdadul Hoque, president of Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB), told The Business Standard.
Hailing from Gaibandha, Hasnahena was a worker at the sales division of internet service provider (ISP) Orbit located on the 9th floor of the building, Emdadul said.
Her body has been kept at Metropolitan Police Hospital, her husband Sony said
Aklima worked in Khawaja Tower and had been missing since the building caught fire. Fire service and civil defense recovered her body from the building at 12:35am on Friday (27 October), said the victim's cousin Azim.
Several others were injured while trying to get out of the building as well.
At least ten people have been rescued as of 12:30am Friday, Fire Service and Civil Defence officials said
The floor where the fire originated houses an ISP office, fire service officials said, adding that they have managed to safely evacuate the majority of the individuals who were trapped there.
"The fire might have originated from the 4th or 11th floor - there are two separate possibilities. We suspect that fire started from short circuit," Fire Service and Civil Defense Directorate Director General Brigadier General Md Main Uddin said while visiting the site.
He added the building doesn't have extensive firefighting compliance, but there were fire extinguishers on different floors which helped the efforts to bring the flames under control at 7:30pm.
According to media reports, many people were seen in the afternoon gathering on the rooftop of the building to escape the fire.
"We received information that there are several individuals trapped inside the building," Rafi Al Faruk, duty officer of Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters told The Business Standard.
The fire service was informed of the fire at 4:58pm and the first unit reached the spot at 5:07pm, said duty officer Rafi Al Faruk.
Later, the army, navy, and air force have joined forces with the Fire Service to combat the blaze, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
Following the fire incident, traffic movement was halted on both sides of the road stretching from Amtali to Gulshan 1.
Internet, telecom networks disrupted across country
Meanwhile, the fire in Khawaja Tower has caused internet glitches across the country.
ISPAB President Emdadul told TBS that the building houses two separate data centres of International Internet Gateway (IEG) which provides bandwidth to some of the major ISPs of the country
"The ISPs dependent on the IEG data centres provide 70% of broadband internet services across the country. As the data centres are shut down, internet services are getting disrupted," he said.
Emdadul said an estimated 60-70% internet users in Dhaka are experiencing internet glitches.
The fire is also disrupting inter-operator calls.
"Due to a fire incident at Khawaja Tower in Mohakhali, all mobile operators are experiencing issues with inter-operator calls, as there is a hub of interconnection exchange located in that building. Mobile operators, in collaboration with the relevant ICX operators, are actively working to relocate the connections to another location at an earliest. We hope to improve the situation soon. We would appreciate everyone to bear with this inconvenience caused due to this fire incident," The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) said in a statement on Thursday night.
Robi, the second largest telecom operator in the country, also issued a press statement in this regard.
"Due to technical reasons caused by the fire incident at Khawaja Tower located in Mohakhali, Dhaka, some of our valued customers may experience temporary difficulty in making voice calls from Robi to other operators or from other operators to Robi. Our technical department is working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. We sincerely apologise for this temporary inconvenience," Robi said in the statement
Khawaja Tower also houses mobile network towers of the other major telecom operators including Grameenphone, the largest one in the country.
