A latest, hours-long hearth at a data center used by Elon Musk’s X might have begun after {an electrical} or mechanical difficulty in an influence system, in response to an official hearth investigation.
WIRED was the first to report on the blaze, which occurred on Could 22 in Hillsboro, Oregon. Information heart large Digital Realty operates the 13-acre website, and a number of folks aware of the matter beforehand instructed WIRED that the Musk-run social platform X has servers there.
Information heart fires are uncommon, with about two dozen well-known incidents over the previous decade throughout hundreds of services globally, in response to various researchers. However rising demand for generative AI expertise—which depends on giant clusters of superior computer systems—is stretching the size and power needs of data centers. The extraordinary load in the end might depart AI knowledge facilities extra susceptible to fires from overheating or malfunctions.
On the X knowledge heart, firefighters initially believed a lithium-ion battery might have been concerned within the hearth, however that didn’t find yourself being the case, Hillsboro Fire & Rescue spokesperson Piseth Pich says.
The hearth ignited a Schneider Electrical Galaxy VX uninterruptible energy provide (UPS) cupboard, in response to a fire department report obtained by WIRED. The UPS system, which is in regards to the measurement of a merchandising machine and is made from steel and plastic, acts as a filter and short-term battery, offering constant electrical energy in case of an outage or different points. They’re frequent at knowledge facilities, business consultants say.
“A UPS homes giant battery packs which, very like electric-vehicle batteries, might be inclined to fires brought on by electrical failures or short-term excessive hundreds,” says Shaolei Ren, {an electrical} and pc engineer at UC Riverside who research knowledge facilities.
A hearth division investigator was unable to visually determine a trigger for ignition of the UPS cupboard, however couldn’t rule out electrical or mechanical failure of “a posh electrical system,” in response to the report. The route of the charring instructed that the fireplace started inside the cupboard.
Digital Realty spokesperson William Reynolds stated that the corporate might “affirm that the fireplace was electrical in nature and never brought on by lithium-ion batteries.” His colleague Helen Bleasdale provides that the corporate has shared “related updates with the affected prospects” and “additionally applied enhancements to forestall recurrence.” They declined to elaborate on these statements.
Schneider Electrical and xAI, which owns X, didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Firefighters arrived 11 minutes after the primary smoke alarm, in response to the fireplace division. Inside a second-floor energy room, they encountered floor-to-ceiling smoke and doused the burning cupboard with hearth extinguishers. The report lists an estimated $260,000 in losses to the information heart, together with complete destruction of 1 energy cupboard. Two neighboring ones suffered harm. No accidents have been reported.
Russell Carroll, {an electrical} engineer whose California agency EMI Sleuth helps examine fires, says insufficient cooling and temperature monitoring of energy techniques can result in fires. “A cupboard with poor air flow might have triggered overheating to the batteries,” he says, whereas noting that images from the scene “present a perforated panel that would offer good air flow.”
