Fire at Proximus data centre disrupts emergency calls in Belgium

What happened

Local press reported a fire in a Proximus data centre at its Brussels buildings in Evere. The fire was detected around 9am and prompted a brief evacuation of staff. Belgian federal police said emergency numbers 112, 101 and 100 were unavailable. Numbers 112 and 101 were unreachable for less than half an hour on Wednesday morning. Normal operations resumed by around 10:30am. The cause of the outage was still being investigated.

Contributing factors

The cause of the fire was not reported. Proximus was still investigating the cause of the outage.

Lessons learned

1. Data centre operators should maintain redundant pathways for critical public services such as emergency communications.
2. Rapid detection and response can limit the duration of service outages.
3. Alternative contact methods for emergency services should be pre-planned and communicated during incidents.

Source

datacenterdynamics.com