The fire at SingTel's Bukit Panjang facility in early October was caused by an employee who did not follow maintenance procedures, including the use of an unauthorised blowtorch. -- FILE PHOTO: SINGTEL
By Irene Tham
Last month's fire at a SingTel's Bukit Panjang Internet exchange which crippled critical services across Singapore was caused by an employee who did not follow strict maintenance procedures, including the use of an unauthorised blowtorch.
SingTel said this in a statement on Wednesday adding that it had completed preliminary investigations into the Oct 9 incident which occured during maintenance work at one of the lead-in pipes located in the cable chamber.
The fire, which took down banking, payment and Internet services, was localised in one of three pipes that houses cables connecting to customer homes and business premises.
The blaze damaged 149 fibre optic cables, two-thirds of which belong to national fibre broadband network builder OpenNet.