A fire at the Pioneer Base of Bangladesh’s Rooppur Nuclear Power Project in Ishwardi, Pabna, has left internet connectivity disrupted for nearly 57 hours, while electricity and water supplies remain suspended in several buildings.
The fire broke out at around 3am on Sunday at an office of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) within the project area. The incident was not publicly known until Tuesday night, according to the information available.
Several rooms, including the BAEC server room, were badly damaged in the blaze. Computers, air-conditioning units, electrical equipment, important documents and various components of the internet server system were destroyed or damaged.
Md Sadekul Bari, deputy assistant director of the Pabna Fire Service, said the fire started suddenly in the server room at the BAEC’s Pioneer Base late on Sunday night. Flames and smoke quickly spread to nearby rooms, prompting an emergency response.
Four units of the Ishwardi Fire Service reached the site after receiving the alert. Firefighters worked for an extended period before bringing the blaze under control.
The consequences of the fire continued after the flames had been extinguished. Electricity supplies to the Pioneer Base and two nearby buildings were completely cut off. Internet connectivity was also disrupted at various offices of Nuclear Power Plant Company Bangladesh Limited (NPCBL) and the BAEC.
A site in-charge at the project, speaking on condition of anonymity, said internet services at the key facilities had not been restored by noon on Wednesday, almost 57 hours after the incident. The prolonged outage has created difficulties for project personnel, particularly in maintaining internal communication and carrying out routine office work.
Water and electricity supplies have also remained unavailable at the customs building and the canteen. The disruption has therefore affected several support facilities within the project area, rather than being limited to the building where the fire originated.
Damage to the server room has become a particular concern because both technical equipment and documents were destroyed. Project personnel are worried that important information and records may have been affected, although the extent of any data or document loss has not yet been established.
Md Shahidul Islam, station master of the Rooppur Greencity Modern Fire Service, said the server room had suffered significant damage, with technical equipment and documents destroyed by the fire. He added that the precise value of the losses could not yet be determined.
Fire officials have initially suspected an electrical short circuit as the possible cause of the blaze. However, that assessment remains preliminary. Md Sadekul Bari said the actual cause would be established after a full investigation.
The prolonged disruption to internet and electricity services, combined with damage to the server infrastructure, has affected normal activities at the affected facilities. Restoring the communications network and assessing damaged equipment and records are expected to be important parts of the recovery process.
Attempts were made to obtain comments from officials responsible for the project, but no project representative provided a statement. Repeated telephone calls and text messages to project director Kabir Hossain also went unanswered.
The incident has raised questions about the extent of the damage to the project’s supporting facilities and the time required to restore essential services. A full assessment is still awaited, while the cause of the fire and the scale of the material and documentary losses remain subject to further investigation.
