Fire at Telstra data centre in London’s Isle of Dogs

What happened

Emergency services attended a fire at a data centre operated by Telstra at Greenwich View Place in London’s Isle of Dogs. The London Fire Brigade sent four fire engines and 25 crew, and later said a small part of a supply room was damaged and that no injuries were reported. The company confirmed that the lower half of the facility was offline. A recorded message at the company’s Docklands office said the site had lost the power system it called the green system after the fire tripped the bus bar breakers, and that engineers were working to restore power by generator.

Contributing factors

The cause was not confirmed. The report said unconfirmed accounts, which it described as rumour, suggested a faulty uninterruptible power supply may have started the fire. Telstra had not confirmed that account when the report was published.

Lessons learned

1. A supply-room fire can trip bus bar breakers and take a large part of a data centre offline even when the reported physical damage is small.
2. Operators should be ready to restore supply by generator and to tell customers what is known while the cause is still unconfirmed.
3. An early report of a UPS fault should be investigated, not treated as established, until the operator or the fire service confirms it.

Source

datacenterdynamics.com