Fire Incident at Telecommunication Facility in Cairo Highlights Safety Risks Amid Data Center Boom

In July 2025, a fire broke out at Telecom Egypt’s data center facility in Cairo, claiming four lives and disrupting telecommunication services across the Egyptian capital city. According to media reports, the incident significantly impacted network performance, with Internet monitoring group NetBlocks reporting that network capacity was at 62% of usual levels. Services impacted by the incident included phone calls, Internet access, and digital banking services.

While fire incidents at data centers are relatively rare (when compared to the number of existing data centers), any such incident is expected to have a severe impact on services. For example, in September 2024, a fire incident, involving lithium-ion batteries stored in berry rooms, was reported at the Digital Realty data center located in Singapore, resulting in services from several large online platforms, such as Lazada, Bytedance, and Alibaba Cloud, going offline. In the same month, another fire incident was reported at a data center operated by Indian Communications Service Provider (CSP) Reliance Jio, with the event leading to widespread mobile network connectivity outage in the country.

It is clear that mobile networks and data centers are critical elements in supporting the digital economy, and this importance is expected to grow at a rapid rate, especially in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) era. Data centers are quickly being built up, with ABI Research forecasting that total next-generation data center sites (including both colocation and hyperscaler data centers) are forecast to grow from 5,700 to 8,400 (at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.7%) between 2024 and 2030 (see ABI Research’s Next-Generation Data Center Forecasts market data (MD-NGDC-24)). At the same time, exceeding earlier forecasts, mobile data traffic is also expected to increase from 1,500 exabytes in 2024 to almost 4,900 exabytes in 2030 (at a CAGR of 21%). This growth is driven by increasing consumption of high-resolution video streaming services, both downloads and uploads, and higher adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) mobile applications.

This rapid increase in reliance on digital and mobile services is generating new requirements for data center operators. For example, in October 2022, a fire broke out at a building owned by SK Group that was housing data centers for Kakao and Naver. As a result of this incident, there was a widespread and prolonged disruption to Kakao services, which included its messaging, finance, and transportation platforms. In response to this incident, Kakao reported that even though it operated backup servers in other data centers, the company was not prepared for such a large-scale incident where 32,000 servers had to be shutdown. A significant amount of time was required to transfer data traffic to the backup servers, affecting the company’s ability to restore services in a swift manner.

With the above sections providing a clear picture of the impact of unplanned downtimes of data centers, ABI Research has identified some of the key areas, spanning data center solutions and operational processes, that data center operators (including public, private, and telcos) should consider to ensure safe and resilient operations.

Data Center Solutions

• Fire Protection Solutions: Data center operators need to consider enhancing operational resiliency by deploying early detection and extinguishing solutions to minimize the impact of fire incidents. Vendors such as Chubb, Honeywell, Siemens, Promat, etc. offer data center fire protection solutions that include sensors, alarms, ventilation, and extinguishing systems.
• Equipment Monitoring: Accurate and real-time monitoring of equipment performance is another option that data center operators can adopt to enhance resiliency of their operations. For example, the integration of AI capabilities in Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) solutions can help operators by providing real-time monitoring and data-driven insights into equipment performance and rack conditions. This enables data center operators to identify potential issues early and prevent them from escalating to much larger problems.

Operational Processes

• Reviewing Business Continuity Plans (BCP): While it is expected that most CSPs and data center operators would already have some type of BCP in place, it is important that these plans are reviewed and updated frequently. In addition, the BCP plans should account for all scenarios, including the worst possible scenario (with the Kakao case example mentioned above as a case in point).
• Ensure Staff Are Familiar with Safety Procedures: Unfortunately, some fire incidents have led to the loss of life and injuries. It is important for CSPs and data center operations to maintain a high level of safety operation proficiency among its employees. Data center staff should be regularly refreshed on the operational procedures in the event of fires, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) need to prioritize human safety.
• Ensure Close Cooperation with Emergency Services: Beyond internal operations, regular interaction and coordination should be conducted between data center operators and emergency services. This will ensure that emergency personnel are familiar with data center layouts, which can expedite remedial actions.

In summary, with the number of data center deployments increasing globally, there is also an increase in safety and resiliency concerns. Data center operators need to strongly consider how they can ensure more resilient data operations both for their employees and their end users.