Mohakhali fire claims three lives, disrupts internet and mobile services

The death toll in the fire at Khawaja Tower in Dhaka’s Mohakhali has reached three as rescuers have found two bodies inside the 14-storey building.

The Fire Service and Civil Defence personnel found Rafiqul Islam, 62, and Aklima Rahman, whose age could not be confirmed immediately, nearly seven hours after the fire broke out around 5pm on Thursday, report bdnews24.com and UNB.

Doctors at Dhaka Medical College Hospital declared dead Rafiqul, an engineer at Saif Powertec which has its office on the 13th floor of the building, when the firefighters took him there at midnight, said Inspector Bachchu Mia at the hospital’s police camp.

His younger son Samiul, who gave a single name, was waiting outside the building for his missing father at night.

Samiul said Rafiqul had called Samiul’s elder brother around 5:30pm and told him to bring water after the fire started.

Aklima, an employee of Race Online on the eighth floor, was still missing when the rescuers found Rafiqul.

Mostafizur Rahman, chief of Banani Police Station, said the firefighters found Aklima on the 10th floor later and brought her down in a body bag after midnight.

Her brother Riasat Rahman said she had called a relative and sought help in the afternoon.

Earlier, Hasna Hena, 27, another employee of Race Online, died after falling during a desperate attempt to escape the fire by using a cable in the afternoon.

The fire service said they rescued eight people alive until 9pm.

Talking to journalists at the spot around 12:00am on Friday, Director General of Fire Service and Civil Defense Brigadier General Main Uddin said firefighters brought the fire under control. They need more time to completely douse the fire.

Later, Md Shahjahan Shikdar, deputy assistant director (media cell) of Fire Service and Civil Defence confirmed that the fire was completely doused at 8:45 am on Friday.

A bdnews24.com report said the fire has caused widespread disruption to internet connections across the country as the building houses data centres and servers of several firms.

Residents of some areas in Dhaka reported total internet blackout while some others were facing slow connections as internet service providers of Bangladesh warned of disruptions after the fire incident on Thursday afternoon.

Emdadul Hoque, president of the ISPs Association of Bangladesh, said two data centres at Khawaja Tower are connected to 10-12 International Internet Gateways that serve several hundred ISPs.

 “It can be said that 40-50 per cent of ISPs of the country have been directly affected by the fire while the rest face partial disruption of services,” he said.

Emdadul Hoque told UNB, “It will take at least a week to restore internet speed to normal due to the amount of damage caused by the Khawaja Tower fire incident. And if the devices burn, it may take longer.”

“Until then, the internet may be slow across the country, he added.

He added that the extent of the damage can be accurately estimated on Friday after going there.

“However, we would urge law enforcement to allow us to enter the building at the earliest or to allow the transfer of goods if the building is at risk.”

“So that the service can be fixed at the earliest, otherwise it will take more time,” he added.

According to bdnews24.com, mobile phone operators Grameenphone, Banglalink and Robi told their customers in notices that the fire may cause disruptions to voice call and internet services.

Saif Powertec has its offices and data centre on six floors of the building. The eighth and ninth floors house Earth Telecom and Race Online’s offices and server rooms on the eighth and ninth floors of the building. Race Online is a venture of Earth Telecom.

NRB Telecom, which provides services to mobile phone operators, has its data centre rented and run by Windstream Communications.

Mahbub Alam, owner of Windstream, said Grameenphone and many other companies have their data centres and servers in the building.

Almost all the IIGs and ISPs of the country are connected to these data centres and servers, he said.

He thinks the fire will cause internet service disruptions across the country as the fire has heavily damaged the data centres and optical fibres in Khawaja Tower.

Internet service provider ADN Telecom said in a notice that most of their customers will face problems as the fire has snapped the backbone fibre cable of their nationwide telecom transmission network in the building.