Technology1 min read

Fire Breaks Out at a Data Center Leased by X

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Firefighters arrived at the Hillsboro Technology Park at 10:21 a.m. and discovered a smoke-filled room with batteries involved in the blaze. Responders successfully contained the flames to the single room, preventing them from spreading across the building before clearing the scene. The location is especially vital because X moved more than 2,573 server racks to Portland and Atlanta following the closure of its Sacramento site. Digital Realty and X have not confirmed whether the incident caused server disruptions.

Key points

  • The Hillsboro site represents one of only two core data centers supporting X following in…: The Hillsboro site represents one of only two core data centers supporting X following infrastructure cuts made in late 2022.
  • Digital Realty confirmed the incident was successfully contained to a single room without…: Digital Realty confirmed the incident was successfully contained to a single room without spreading to other parts of the building.
  • Prior to Elon Musk's acquisition, the social media platform utilized three regional data…: Prior to Elon Musk's acquisition, the social media platform utilized three regional data centers to balance server traffic and avoid outages.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

A fire broke out Thursday morning at a data center in Hillsboro, Oregon, leased by Elon Musk’s X, forcing an extended response from emergency crews, according to multiple sources who spoke to WIRED. The sources required anonymity as they aren’t authorized to speak publicly about the company.

Firefighters arrived at the Hillsboro Technology Park, in a suburb west of Portland, at 10:21 am, according to Hillsboro Fire and Rescue spokesperson Piseth Pich. They found a room with batteries that were deemed to be involved in the fire. Pich noted that the fire had not spread to other parts of the building, but said the room in question was heavy with smoke. As of 3:00 pm, the crew was still on the scene.

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WIRED. It could not be learned whether server operations at the data center had been affected by the incident.

Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, the company had three data centers in Sacramento, Portland, and Atlanta. This ensured that if one data center went down, traffic could be…

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