Explosion in Calgary communications hub

An explosion at a major Calgary, Alberta, communications hub had crews working around the clock to restore Internet and phone service, officials said Thursday. The blast and small fire on the 13th floor of the Shaw Communications building Wednesday afternoon caused sprinklers to douse scores of IT servers and shut down 20,000 Shaw customers' Internet service, phones and cable television, the Calgary Sun said. No injuries were reported, police said. Water from the sprinkler system and firefighters' hoses trickled down through the building and also soaked three floors of an IBM Canada server center, the Calgary Herald said. The company provides outsourcing services for corporate, provincial and federal government clients, all of which lost service, company officials said. The communications meltdown also forced three radio stations off the air and disabled many ATM cash machines throughout the city. At a late night news conference, Shaw Communications President Peter Bissonnette apologized to everyone affected and said the cause of the initial explosion was still being investigated.