POND ISLAND:--- An incident occurred at the Smitcoms Building at approximately 3:30pm today (Monday September 1) causing the crash of TelEm Group's international, landline and internet/data circuits.
A small fire caused the system to be activated which released a fire retardant gas.
The alarm was raised by TelEm Group personnel working in the ground floor of the SMITCOMS building, Harbour View, where the company's CS2K international switch is housed. Immediately, the Governor's office and personnel, also housed on the second floor of the building were also evacuated.
According to TelEm Group and SMITCOMS personnel, the fire retardant gas started in the server room, where the fire may have started.
Chief Technical Officer, Mr. Eldert Louisa, said firefighting crews would not allow technical staff access to the gas-filled room until it was cleared
"All we can report at this stage is that the international switch is down and this will affect international and landline communication along with some internet and data services that depend on the international circuits," said Mr. Louisa. He said this would include credit card processing and ATM transactions at the banks.
"The public can be assured that we will be working diligently to get all circuits back in operation as soon as possible once we have access to the equipment and the server room again," said Mr. Louisa.
He said once the service is restored, a routine procedure will begin to determine what caused the build-up of gas and how it can be prevented in the future.
Mr. Louisa has meantime apologized to the public and customers of TelEm Group for the inconvenience caused by the unexpected outage.
TELEM Press Release
