A fire at a Digital Realty data center in Singapore has continued into its second day.
Digital Realty yesterday confirmed to DCD that a fire alarm was triggered at its SIN11 data center at 7.45am local time yesterday, September 10. By 8.04pm local time, Alibaba, which runs some of its cloud service from the data center, said that, though "under control," the issue had not been completely eliminated.
However, a further update suggests the situation has gotten worse.
"As of 1:46am, in response to local fire department's request, due to ongoing water spraying for fire fighting, the server room has started to experience water accumulation and leaks, posing a risk of electrical short circuits," Alibaba said in a further update on its status page. "An emergency power shutdown has been implemented for one of the server building[s] in Singapore Availability Zone C, while network services for other buildings in Availability Zone C have been gradually restored."
While Digital and Alibaba didn't disclose the cause of the fire, the local fire service suggested a lithium-ion UPS system was the culprit.
According to local press, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said the fire "involved lithium-ion batteries housed in battery rooms on the third floor of a four-story building."
“SCDF deployed four water jets to contain the fire. The sprinkler system was also activated.”
Around 20 people were reportedly evacuated from the building before firefighters arrived.
By 9pm, an unmanned firefighting robot was being deployed for damping down operations to cool the batteries involved in the fire.
“This will likely be a prolonged operation,” added the SCDF.
SCDF told CNA at around 7.45am local time on Wednesday (Sep 11) that damping down operations are still ongoing.
A spokesperson for Digital Realty said: "As of 1.45am local time on 11 September, following advice from Digital Realty’s Licensed Electrical Worker (LEW) and the SCDF, we have powered down some electrical systems.
"All impacted customers have been advised to continue to maintain their business continuity plans in effect."
SIN11 Digital Loyang 1, located at 3 Loyang Way, launched in 2016 and totals 17,000 sqm (183,000 sq ft) across four stories.
Companies including Lazada and ByteDance have reportedly seen disruption as a result of the incident.
W.media notes the SCDF's safety standards require all Energy Storage Systems (ESS) installations to be located on the ground floor. Digital reached out to DCD, however, to note these were new regulations from 2020, four years after SIN11 launched.
