CAIRO: Egypt was poised to start an investigation yesterday after an all-night effort to put out a blaze that tore through the Senate building in the heart of Cairo and left one fireman dead.
Authorities were assessing the damage to the 19th century building after emergency services took more than nine hours to put out the fire which broke out around 1430 GMT on Tuesday, a police official told state television.
“A fireman has died in the accident,” Interior Minister Habib Al-Adly told reporters outside the gutted building.
“Security services are ruling out sabotage or any criminal act,” he said.
Thirteen people were also injured during the fire, suffering mainly from smoke inhalation, as well as bruises and bone fractures, officials said.
A security official told AFP that the cause of the fire remained unclear, although some sources have pointed to an electrical short-circuit.
Senate Speaker Safwat Al-Sherif and Parliament Speaker Fathi Surur were expected to hold talks later yesterday with Egypt’s Arab Contractors construction company to plan the restoration, the official MENA news agency reported.
The building, which is listed by the Supreme Council of Antiquities as an Islamic monument, “boasts unique Islamic decoration,” archaeologist Abdullah Al-Attar told MENA.
On Tuesday, a huge black cloud rose above the building in central Cairo as helicopters carrying water from the nearby Nile doused the flames to prevent them spreading to surrounding ministries and government buildings.
While the dome of the Majlis Al-Shoura or Senate itself was spared, the fire spread quickly from the third to the second floor of the building, causing severe damage to a parliamentary archive before being brought under control.
Both houses of Parliament were on summer recess, which meant few people would have been in the building at the time of the fire.
“The problem is that the building is built of wood, and this helped the fire to spread. Everyone is working to bring the situation under control,” Sherif told state TV on Tuesday.
Surur said the cause of the blaze remained unclear but that copies existed for any documents or files that may have been burned in the fire.
All roads in the area were closed off on Tuesday evening, allowing access only to emergency services and authorities.
The area is usually under tight security as it is close to the American University in Cairo and not far from several Western embassies.
The Majlis Al-Shoura is made up of 264 members, of whom 176 are directly elected and 88 appointed by the president. Half of the council’s members are renewed every three years. Its role is mainly consultative.
