Data centre fires and power failures
Counted from the register on 3 October 2026.
Every data centre incident in public reporting that started in the power systems: UPS and battery rooms, backup generators, switchgear, transformers and fuel. Each entry says what happened and lists its sources. Free to read.
- Where the reporting names the part that failed, UPS and battery rooms come up most often: 19 of the 66 entries, then backup generators (7).
- 47 of the 66 entries are fires or thermal events, and 15 are classed as major.
- 31 of the 66 entries are dated 2024 or later.
What failed
Counted from the words of the reporting itself. An entry is counted under each part its reporting names, and "Not stated" means the public reporting did not say.
| Part named in the reporting | Entries | |
|---|---|---|
| UPS and battery rooms | 19 | |
| Backup generators | 7 | |
| Switchgear and electrical rooms | 3 | |
| Transformers and substations | 3 | |
| Fuel systems | 1 | |
| Not stated | 38 |
By year
| Year of the incident | Entries | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 10 | |
| 2025 | 16 | |
| 2024 | 5 | |
| 2023 | 7 | |
| 2022 | 6 | |
| 2021 | 3 | |
| 2020 | 1 | |
| 2019 | 4 | |
| 2018 | 4 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 3 | |
| 2015 | 4 | |
| 2014 | 1 |
By country
| Country | Entries | |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 25 | |
| India | 5 | |
| United Kingdom | 5 | |
| South Korea | 4 | |
| France | 4 | |
| Nigeria | 2 | |
| Singapore | 2 | |
| Australia | 2 | |
| Belgium | 2 | |
| Bahrain | 1 | |
| United Arab Emirates | 1 | |
| Netherlands | 1 | |
| Brazil | 1 | |
| Egypt | 1 | |
| Germany | 1 | |
| Bangladesh | 1 | |
| Spain | 1 | |
| Iran | 1 | |
| Philippines | 1 | |
| Indonesia | 1 | |
| Sweden | 1 | |
| Japan | 1 | |
| Haiti | 1 | |
| Not stated | 1 |
The major incidents
The entries the register classes as major: the longest outages, the worst damage and the incidents where people were hurt.
Every data centre entry
Questions answered
How many data centre fires have there been?
The register holds 66 data centre incidents from public reporting, 2014 to 2026, in 23 countries. 47 of them are fires or thermal events; the rest are power failures, explosions, gas releases and electrical injuries in the power systems. These are the incidents that reached public reporting; many smaller ones never do.
What causes most data centre fires?
Where the public reporting names the part that failed, the most common is UPS and battery rooms (19 entries), followed by backup generators (7) and switchgear and electrical rooms (3). In 38 entries the reporting does not say what failed.
Do lithium-ion UPS batteries cause data centre fires?
7 entries name lithium-ion batteries, including Fire at STT Global Data Centres India facility in New Delhi (EIR-1888, 2026); Lithium-ion battery explosion causes data centre fire in Daejeon (EIR-1893, 2025); Battery room fire at Digital Realty data centre in Hillsboro, Oregon (EIR-0106, 2025). Lead-acid UPS batteries appear too. Each entry gives the source for what was said.
Which data centre incidents were the most serious?
15 of the 66 entries are classed as major, among them Reported fire at an AWS data centre in Bahrain after alleged attack (EIR-1897, 2026); Fire at STT Global Data Centres India facility in New Delhi (EIR-1888, 2026); Fire reported at an Amazon data centre site in Jerome Township, Ohio (EIR-1958, 2025). The full list is on this page.
Where do data centre fires happen most?
In the reporting the register has found, United States (25), India (5), United Kingdom (5) have the most entries. That partly reflects where data centres are built and where the press reports on them.
Is there a list of data center fires?
Yes. This page lists every data centre (data center) fire and power failure the register has published, 66 entries from 2014 to 2026, each with its sources, free to read and cite. It is rebuilt from the register as new incidents are published.
What this page covers, and what it does not
The register records incidents in a data centre's power systems, because those are the parts that share their failure modes with battery storage and the grid: lithium-ion and lead-acid UPS batteries, diesel generators and their fuel, switchgear and transformers. A software outage or a cooling fault with no fire or power failure is not recorded here.
Public reporting on data centre fires often names the operator but rarely the battery chemistry, the UPS make or the cause. The register does not guess them. Where a fire service, regulator or the operator states one, the entry carries it and says who said it.
If you run data centres or insure them and want a field added, tell us what it should be.
How to use this
- Every entry is free to read: browse the data centre entries, or see the data centre hub.
- Get an email when a new data centre incident is published: incident alerts, free.
- Cite an entry by its reference, for example EIR-1848, and link it. Attribution is all we ask.
- Pull the same data over the API.
- If an entry is wrong, the correction is free, for anyone.
Related: battery storage incidents and solar fires.