Deeming it too risky to keep lithium batteries in server room, officials were in the process of relocating them when the fire broke out, local reports say
Friday's national data center fire, which caused massive government IT system disruptions across South Korea, started while workers were transferring batteries as part of a fire prevention project, according to local media reports on Sunday.
The National Information Resources Service in Daejeon began removing lithium-ion batteries from a server room to reduce fire risks, an effort prompted by a 2022 blaze at SK C&C’s data center in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, which disrupted major services including Kakao, Daum and Naver. That fire was caused by lithium-ion batteries in the uninterruptible power supply.
The government agency judged it risky to keep the national computer systems and batteries in the same place. After securing a budget, it began relocating batteries to the basement.
The blaze broke out around 8:20 p.m. in a server room on the fifth floor when an uninterruptible power supply battery suddenly sparked. It happened about 40 minutes after the staff had cut power to move the batteries to the basement.
Fire officials said the server room’s layout, with only 60 centimeters between the high-risk batteries and major servers, and 1.2 meters between servers, made extinguishing the blaze especially difficult.
At the time, contractors working on the relocation, inspection teams and equipment manufacturers were on-site. One contractor suffered first-degree burns to his face and arm while shutting down the battery power.
The fire was extinguished around 6:30 a.m. Saturday, roughly 10 hours after it began. The accident has suspended operations of 647 major government systems.
shinjh@heraldcorp.com
