Onward and Upward

Yes Virginia, Data Center Fires Really Do Happen November 26, 2014

Responding to recent comments from a facility manager that fires in data centers are rare, Onward and Upward offers a recap of three such fires that have happened in the previous 11 months with details on each.

♦ A fully-powered, but unused transient-voltage surge suppressor (TVSS) failed in the Hoover State Office Building’s basement level data center on the afternoon of February 18, 2014.  The failure caused significant damage to the unit and produced smoke throughout the room.  A quick-thinking employee activated a manual release station that discharged over 2,400 pounds of FM-200 clean fire-suppressing agent throughout the room and raised floor.  In addition, the agent release also triggered the emergency-power-off circuit dropping power to critical equipment.

The Des Moines, Iowa fire department responded within minutes of receiving the signal from the building’s automatic fire alarm system.  Upon arrival, the fire was extinguished and personnel were assessing the fire damage and working to restore operations.

♦  The catastrophic failure of a capacitor caused dense smoke to be generated within the cabinet of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) unit at a central Iowa data center on March 19, 2014.  The FM-200 clean agent fire suppression system incorporated a VESDA air-sampling smoke detection system that quickly sensed the smoke and automatically released 385 pounds of agent.  The fire was extinguished by the time local fire teams arrived on the scene.

While the facility itself was unaffected by smoke damage or the clean agent discharge, it took over a day and a half for personnel to locate the failed component deep within the UPS unit.

♦ The malfunction over-heating of evaporator coils on a self-contained computer room air-conditioner ignited collected dust and paper filaments in the raised floor of a Des Moines area data room.  The slow smoldering of the materials was sensed by a smoke detector located under the raised floor on the evening of September 18, 2014.  A second smoke detector confirmed the smoke condition and initiated the discharge sequence that notified the building’s automatic fire alarm system and released 274 pounds of FM-200.

The small data room was unoccupied at the time of the event.  When facility and fire department personnel arrived, the fire was extinguished and there was no damage caused by the agent’s discharge.

While it maybe uncommon to have three events occur within a short time span, it’s clear that it’s not uncommon for fires to occur in data centers.  Each of these incidents could have easily gotten out-of-hand and escalated into major disruptions for these facilities.  However, because of forethought by prudent operators and well-designed and maintained clean agent fire suppression systems, the effects of each of these fires was minimized so that mission-critical functions could return to normal.