The hearth broke Elon Musk’s X leased at an information heart in Hillsboro, Oregon on Thursday morning, forcing an enlargement response from the emergency crew, based on a number of sources who spoke to Wired. Sources required anonymity as they weren’t allowed to publicly speak in regards to the firm.
Firefighters arrived at Hillsboro Expertise Park west of Portland at 10:21 a.m., based on Pises Pitch, a spokesman for Hillsboro Hearth and Rescue. They discovered a room with a battery that was deemed concerned within the fireplace. Pitch famous that the hearth had not unfold to different components of the constructing, however mentioned the room in query was heavy with smoke. As of 3pm, the crew had been nonetheless on the scene.
X didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Wired. We had been unable to know whether or not server operations within the information heart had been affected by an incident.
Earlier than Elon Musk purchased Twitter, the corporate had three information facilities in Sacramento, Portland and Atlanta. This prevents a single information heart from being overwhelmed as visitors traveled to the opposite two and cut up up if one information heart goes down.
Round Christmas Eve 2022, Musk closed X’s information heart in Sacramento to chop prices. The corporate skilled a serious outage following the shutdown. For the following six months, the corporate moved greater than 2,573 server racks from its Sacramento facility to its information facilities in Portland and Atlanta, based on inner paperwork.
Within the Portland area, X seems to be leasing area from a constructing linked to Digital Realty, one of many world’s largest information heart builders. Digital Realty presents completely different ranges of operational assist on its website and may have a number of tenants. It’s unclear whether or not X shares the ability with different firms.
Ryan Younger, vp of Digital Realty’s Americas Operations, mentioned the hearth division left on Thursday night after a “fire-related incident at a PDX11 facility.” “All employees members had been evacuated safely and no accidents had been reported,” Younger mentioned. “We proceed to observe the scenario, prioritize facility security and facility integrity, and decrease the impression on our clients.”
Younger declined to touch upon the shopper.
In lots of instances, the battery acts as a backup energy supply to your information heart. Nonetheless, lithium ion varieties are unstable and have points with upkeep and insufficient security measures I contributed Pricey flames in information facilities around the globe. Pitch, a spokesman for the Hillsboro Hearth Division, says he could not keep in mind earlier fires involving batteries at many different information facilities within the Oregon space.
Xai, the mother or father firm of X, has obtained criticism in current months for its speedy enlargement of energy capability at its new Memphis information heart, which was opened final 12 months. The power Musk named Colossus was constructed at a fierce pace to coach Xai Grok and different AI instruments. The corporate has put in greater than 30 methane-powered fuel generators, however the generators are momentary and don’t require a federal air pollution prevention allow. The power has attracted widespread criticism from the encircling black and brown communities, who’ve already been uncovered to huge quantities of air air pollution and industrial emissions from different services within the area.
Up to date 5/22/25 11:03 ET: This story has been up to date to incorporate further feedback from Digital Realty.
