X Data Center Fire in Oregon started inside the electrical energy, the authorities say

A recent hours Fire in a data center used by Elon Musk may have started after an electrical or mechanical problem in a power system, according to an official survey.

Wired was the first to report on the fire, which occurred on May 22 in Hillsboro, Oregon. Data Center Giant Digital Realty operates the 13 acres site, and several people familiar with the affair previously told Wired that the social platform led by X Y muscles have servers.

Faits in the data center are rare, with around two dozen incidents well known in the past decade in thousands of facilities worldwide, according to various researchers. But the growing demand for generative AI technology – which is based on large clusters of advanced computers – extends the size and power needs of data centers. The intense load could ultimately leave AI data centers more vulnerable to overheating fires or dysfunctions.

At the X Data Center, the firefighters initially believed that a lithium-ion battery could have been involved in the fire, but that did not end up being the case, says the spokesperson for Hillsboro Fire & Rescue, Piseth Pich.

The fire triggered a electric power firm (UPS) Schneider Electric Galaxy VX, according to a report by the fire service obtained by Wired. The UPS system, which is roughly the size of an automatic distributor and is made of metal and plastic, acts as a filter and a temporary battery, offering coherent electricity in the event of a breakdown or other problems. They are common in data centers, according to industry experts.

“A UPS is home to large batteries which, as well as electric-developer batteries, can be sensitive to fires caused by electrical failures or high temporary charges,” explains Shaolei Ren, electric and computer engineer at UC Riverside who studies the data centers.

An investigator of the fire service could not visually identify a cause of ignition from the UPS cabinet, but could not exclude the electrical or mechanical failure of a “complex electrical system”, according to the report. The direction of the charment suggested that the fire started inside the cabinet.

Digital Realty spokesman William Reynolds said that the company could “confirm that the fire was electrical in nature and not caused by lithium-ion batteries”. His colleague Helen Bleasdale adds that the company shared “relevant updates with concerned customers” and “also implemented improvements to prevent recurrence”. They refused to develop these statements.

Schneider Electric and Xai, which has X, did not respond to requests for comments.

The firefighters arrived 11 minutes after the first smoke alarm, according to the fire service. Inside an electricity room on the second floor, they encountered floor smoke on the ceiling and sprinkled the burn cabinet with fire extinguishers. The report lists around $ 260,000 as losses in the data center, including the total destruction of an electric cabinet. Two neighbors suffered damage. No injury has been reported.

Russell Carroll, an electrician engineer whose Californian company Emi Sleuth helps investigate fires, says inadequate cooling and temperature monitoring of electrical systems can cause fires. “A wardrobe with poor ventilation can have caused an overheating of the batteries,” he says, notably noting that the photos of the scene “show a perforated panel that would provide good ventilation”.