SingTel releases full inquiry findings on Bukit Panjang fire

See what likely caused the blaze.

In a release, the SingTel Board announced that it has accepted and endorsed the findings and recommendations of the independent Board Committee of Inquiry (BCOI) on the fire at the Bukit Panjang exchange on 9 October 2013.

The BCOI’s findings and recommendations covered three main areas: fire prevention in exchanges, network reliability and resiliency, as well as public relations and communications. The BCOI was assisted by independent technical consultant, Bell Labs, and communications consultant, Bell Pottinger.

Following a full investigation, the BCOI concluded that the most probable cause of the fire was hot works carried out during maintenance activities in the cable chamber.

An unauthorised blowtorch was used to heat and shrink a lead-based sealant to seal a cable duct. The employee carrying out the hot works did not have the company issued blowtorch equipment with him and had borrowed the unauthorised blowtorch from a contractor. The flame of the unauthorised blowtorch was almost twice as hot as that of a company issued SingTel blowtorch. The use of the unauthorised blowtorch most likely caused localised overheating, resulting in a slowburning fire in the cable chamber.

“While the fire was due mainly to human error, the inquiry uncovered shortcomings in fire safety practices that require immediate rectification,” said Chairman of the BCOI, Mr Bobby Chin, “The technical expert has, however, affirmed that the network has a high degree of resiliency. SingTel should continue to build on this.”

SingTel said it is committed to strengthening its network to enhance Singapore’s status as a leading financial and business hub. “We recognise the impact of the incident on businesses and customers. The BCOI has given us a critical review of our operations, which will steer and motivate us to raise our standards. We will work with the industry to define a national engagement framework for greater collaboration to ensure that Singapore’s telecoms infrastructure remains resilient even during major network incidents,” said Mr Simon Israel, Chairman of SingTel.

SingTel management has accepted the BCOI’s findings and is committed to implementing the recommendations. “We take full responsibility for the incident. We recognise the inconvenience it caused our customers and the public, and we are sorry for this. The BCOI review offers a valuable opportunity to take a step back and comprehensively assess our network design and operations. We want to assure customers that it is our top priority to prevent a recurrence and we have started work on the enhancements,” said Ms Chua Sock Koong, Group CEO of SingTel.

The BCOI found that the use of lead-based sealants, and the associated use of open flames, posed fire risks. The BCOI recommended replacing lead-based sealants with alternative materials that do not require heating (eg, Multi Cable Transit systems), thereby removing the need for hot works in cable chambers. SingTel is already in the process of converting all duct seal installations to MCT Systems. Completion of this exercise is estimated to be at the end of 2014. Other recommendations included enhancing fire detection, fire watch practices and automatic fire suppression measures to augment existing smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.

The BCOI noted that in the interim, SingTel has switched to an alternative method for hot works, which uses a hot air blower without open flame, and enforced a longer fire watch. The BCOI found that SingTel had an existing set of safety protocols in relation to hot works and recommended a review of training for employees to ensure compliance with such protocols.

Bell Labs has advised the BCOI that SingTel has a robust core network architecture which has a high degree of resilience against incidents such as the fire. As a result, the impact of the fire was localised to the area served by the Bukit Panjang exchange. Bell Labs also found that SingTel took fast and effective measures in its incident management and applied innovative processes, which allowed multiple splicing teams to simultaneously carry out repair work in a limited space.

The BCOI identified a number of areas of improvement in network design and stakeholder engagement. It recommended a stronger engagement with industry players in the existing three-tier industry structure for fibre services, and to establish a national framework that will foster a coordinated response from all telecom stakeholders on an agile, proactive basis in the event of a major network incident.

The BCOI also recommended that SingTel initiate regular exchanges with other global operators to share key learning points and best practices in network resilience and reliability.

Bell Pottinger advised the BCOI that SingTel was prompt and transparent in its release of information about the incident and found no areas requiring immediate improvement. SingTel used multiple channels, including social media, to communicate effectively with customers.

To further enhance communications crisis response, the BCOI’s key recommendations were for SingTel to formalise crisis communications protocols which are currently based on ad hoc prior experience, extending crisis simulation drills to include key spokespeople and corporate communications staff, as well as adopt a more structured process for media and internal updates.