Fire at Egypt’s Endowments Ministry started in computer server room

The Egyptian Public Prosecution Office has revealed more details about the fire that broke out on Saturday at the Ministry of Religious Endowments in Cairo.

Following an investigation, which included questioning security personnel in the building, the representative for legal affairs and the ministry’s general manager for infrastructure, the prosecutors concluded that the blaze was caused by an electrical short circuit in an air-conditioning unit in the computer server room on the first floor.

The fire then spread to offices on higher floors where it damaged some documents, all of which had earlier been converted into a digital format. Other documents that would have been held in the 21 offices affected were last month moved to ministry’s building in the New Administrative Capital.

No one was hurt in the fire.

The prosecution office has assigned the criminal lab to conduct further investigations into the cause of the fire and ordered the creation of an engineering committee from the Cairo governorate to determine the structural integrity of the damaged building.

After firefighters brought the blaze under control on Saturday, the site was visited by Minister of Endowments Mohammed Mokhtar Gomaa and Cairo Gov. Khaled Abdel Aal.