Lithium-ion battery explosion causes data centre fire in Daejeon

What happened

A lithium-ion battery exploded in a server room on the fifth floor of the National Information Resources Service facility in Daejeon on 26 September 2025, starting a fire that was completely extinguished the following day. The source reports that 96 systems were directly damaged. As a precaution, 647 online government systems were shut down, of which 436 were public services and 211 were internal systems. By 6 p.m. on 7 October, 163 of those systems had been restored, a reported restoration rate of 25.2 percent.

Contributing factors

The source says the fire began after a lithium-ion battery exploded. It does not report why the battery failed.

Lessons learned

1. A battery explosion in a data-centre server room can damage systems on site and force a much wider precautionary shutdown of dependent services.
2. Restoration plans should distinguish systems destroyed in the fire from systems shut down only as a precaution, and should be able to move destroyed systems to another facility.
3. Operators should track public and internal services separately so the scale and pace of recovery are clear.

Source

The Korea Times (koreatimes.co.kr)