SEOUL – A massive fire at South Korea’s national data centre has brought several government online services and internal networks to a standstill, prompting an urgent effort on Saturday to restore critical systems. The blaze, suspected to have originated from a lithium-ion battery explosion during maintenance, is now under investigation.
The fire, which reportedly started with an explosion on Friday night involving a battery produced by South Korea’s LG Energy Solution, caused significant damage to some servers and forced the shutdown of hundreds of others, according to officials. The incident led to a “thermal runaway” in the server room at the National Information Resources Services (NIRS) facility in the central city of Daejeon, generating extreme heat that hindered firefighters’ efforts to aggressively tackle the flames, fire and government officials explained in press briefings.
The NIRS acts as a crucial cloud server for many government services and databases in the heavily wired Asian nation, though it also operates data centres in other locations. While the fire, which began around 8:20 p.m. local time, was brought under control early Saturday, more than 600 servers remained offline as a precautionary measure to protect data. Firefighters were also working to extract nearly 400 battery packs from the building to ensure safety. The exact cause of the initial spark remains unknown and is under investigation, with LG Energy Solution declining to comment due to the ongoing probe.
The disruption has affected a range of public services. Websites for several government ministries, the mobile identification system, the national postal service, and the government’s legal database were among those still inaccessible on Saturday following the blaze in Daejeon, located about 140 km (90 miles) south of the capital, Seoul. Some ministries also reported being unable to use email, according to notices sent to reporters.
Prime Minister Kim Min-seok publicly apologised on Saturday for the significant public inconvenience caused by the service disruptions, pledging swift government action to restore operations. He also announced that upcoming tax payment deadlines would be delayed. “There were difficulties in containing the fire because of the nature of critical government systems being concentrated at one site,” Kim stated during a televised emergency meeting.
Kim added that the internal networks of some government agencies in Daejeon and the nearby city of Sejong were “paralysed.” The head of the data centre, Lee Jae-yong, stated at a briefing that there was no immediate estimate for when services would fully restart. One person sustained minor injuries in the incident, a fire official confirmed, noting considerable fire damage at the initial blaze location on the fifth floor of the building.
