Fire destroys data centres and internet gateways in Dhaka tower

What happened

A fire broke out on the 13th floor of the 14-storey Khawaja Tower in the Mohakhali district of Dhaka on 26 October 2023 at 16:58. The blaze was brought under control by 19:30 the same day and fully extinguished the following morning. Multiple international internet gateways, exchanges and data centres in the building were reported to have been destroyed. Around 40 percent of the country's broadband users and 20 percent of mobile internet users experienced outages. The fire service attended with 12 units and criticised the lack of fire precautions in the building.

Contributing factors

The fire service said there was no fire safety plan. It reported that some extinguishers were working, but that the fire spread because a large amount of flammable material was present. The cause has not been announced.

Lessons learned

1. Data centre and gateway facilities should keep and audit a fire safety plan.
2. Buildings housing critical internet infrastructure should limit flammable materials and maintain compartmentation.
3. Operators need a clear route back into a damaged site, or a way to move equipment, if service is to be restored without a long outage.

Source

datacenterdynamics.com