This weekend, a fire broke out at Global Switch’s London data center. And while the London Fire Brigade (LFB) called it a “small fire”, it ended up sending as many as 60 fire fighters to the scene, where they took almost two hours to put out the fire.
In its official statement about the fire, the LFB said that it received the first call at 04:52 early on the morning of January 24. The fire was reported from a highrise building located on Nutmeg Lane in Blackwall. This thirteen storied tower houses the Global Switch data center.
LFB went on to say that firefighters were mobilized from Poplar, Millwall, Plaistow, Stratford, East Ham and East Greenwich fire stations. The seemingly disproportionate response may have been on account of the facility being located in a high rise building, and the presence of potentially inflammable batteries at the site.
LFB said, “The fire was limited to a string of lead acid batteries.” On the subject of what caused the fire, the London Fire Brigade said, “The fire is believed to have been accidental and caused by the failure of one of the lead acid batteries.”
Global Switch is yet to make any official comment on the fire, and no information is available yet about the impact of the fire in terms of outages or service disruptions. According to LFB, “There was no further damage to the building and no reports of any injuries.” The fire was extinguished by 06:43 A.M.
