Fire at Lotte data centre in Daejeon linked to UPS battery

What happened

A fire broke out at a data centre operated by Lotte in Daejeon, South Korea, at about 4.59am on a Thursday. Officials believe it started in the uninterruptible power supply on the second floor, and that a battery in the UPS may have been involved, though an investigation is ongoing. Twenty-one vehicles and 62 firefighters attended, and the fire was extinguished by 5.38am. No injuries were reported. It is not known whether Lotte's services were affected. This follows a separate fire the previous week at a government data centre in the same city.

Contributing factors

Officials believe the fire started in the UPS and that a battery may have been to blame. The precise cause has not been established, and an investigation is ongoing.

Lessons learned

1. Operators should inspect and maintain UPS battery systems in data centres.
2. A practised emergency response can limit how long a data centre fire burns.
3. Repeated fires at different sites in the same city are a reason for operators to share what investigations find.

Source

datacenterdynamics.com