Fire Breaks Out at a Data Center Leased by Elon Musk’s X

A fireplace broke out Thursday morning at a knowledge heart in Hillsboro, Oregon leased by Elon Musk’s X, forcing an prolonged response from emergency crews, in accordance with a number of sources who spoke to WIRED. The sources required anonymity as they aren’t approved to talk publicly in regards to the firm.

Firefighters arrived on the Hillsboro Know-how Park, in a suburb west of Portland, at 10:21 am, in accordance with Hillsboro Hearth and Rescue spokesperson Piseth Pich. They discovered a room with batteries that had been deemed to be concerned within the hearth. Pich famous that the fireplace had not unfold to different elements of the constructing, however stated the room in query was heavy with smoke. On the time of writing, the crew was nonetheless on the scene.

X didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from WIRED. It couldn’t be realized whether or not server operations on the knowledge heart had been affected by the incident.

Before Elon Musk bought X, the corporate had three knowledge facilities in Sacramento, Portland, and Atlanta. This ensured that if one knowledge heart went down, visitors might be shifted to the opposite two—and cut up so no single knowledge heart was overwhelmed.

Round Christmas Eve 2022, Musk shut down X’s knowledge heart in Sacramento in an effort to chop prices. The corporate skilled a significant outage within the wake of the shutdown. Over the following six months, the corporate moved greater than 2,573 server racks from the Sacramento facility to knowledge facilities in Portland and Atlanta, in accordance with inside paperwork. Within the Portland space, X seems to lease house from a constructing that has been linked to Digital Realty, one of many world’s largest builders of knowledge facilities. Digital Realty gives various ranges of working assist at its websites, which might have a number of tenants. It’s unclear if X shares this facility with different firms. Digital Realty didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Batteries typically perform as a backup energy supply at knowledge facilities. However lithium-ion varieties could be risky, and points with repairs and insufficient security measures have contributed to pricey blazes at knowledge facilities around the globe. Pich, the Hillsboro hearth division spokesperson, says he couldn’t recall any earlier hearth involving batteries within the Oregon area’s many different knowledge facilities.

X’s parent company, xAI, has taken criticism in latest months for its speedy enlargement of energy capability at a brand new knowledge heart in Memphis, which opened final yr. That facility, which Musk named Colossus, was constructed up at a breakneck velocity to coach xAI’s Grok and different AI instruments. The corporate put in greater than 30 methane-powered gasoline generators, however as a result of the generators are non permanent, a federal allow for air pollution management is not required, which seems to take advantage of a loophole within the Clear Air Act. The ability has drawn widespread criticism from surrounding Black and brown communities, who’re already uncovered to a considerable amount of air air pollution and industrial emissions from different services within the space.