Early SCDF investigations suggest that the fire was likely caused by an electrical issue in one of the battery rooms. - Photo: Lianhe Zaobao
SINGAPORE: Firefighters were still involved in damping-down operations at a data centre in Loyang on Wednesday (Sept 11), more than 36 hours after the building reportedly housing systems for tech companies like Lazada and Alibaba caught fire.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), in a joint statement on Sept 11, said the fire affected two battery rooms, two power supply rooms and an equipment storage room on the mezzanine floor on the third floor of the four-storey building.
Early SCDF investigations suggest that the fire was likely caused by an electrical issue in one of the battery rooms, the statement added.
A small team of firefighters remains at the site, the statement said, to monitor the situation and support damping-down operations at both the affected battery rooms, while recovery efforts by the owner of the building continues.
Damping down refers to the application of water to wet burnt surfaces immediately after a fire is put out.
The statement said: “BCA’s preliminary findings indicate some damage to the structure, but the structural integrity of the building is not affected.
“Minor plaster delamination, paint peeling and soot were found on the reinforced concrete structures.”
As a precaution, BCA said it will issue a dangerous building order and closure order for some areas on the third and fourth floors, as well as the mezzanine level.
“The building owner is required to appoint a professional engineer to conduct a full assessment of the structures once debris is cleared,” it added.
SCDF began firefighting operations at the building in 3 Loyang Way on Sept 10 after getting an alert at about 8am.
The fire was linked to lithium-ion batteries kept in the battery rooms on the third floor of the building, and four water jets were deployed to contain the fire. The sprinkler system was also activated, said an SCDF spokesman.
About 20 people got out of the building before firefighters arrived, and there were no reported injuries.
The spokesman added that SCDF deployed an unmanned firefighting robot for damping-down operations to cool the batteries and expect it to be a prolonged operation.
The data centre is owned by real estate company Digital Realty. In response to queries, the company’s spokeswoman said a fire alarm was triggered inside the SIN11 data centre at 7.45am.
The response protocol was deployed, and all workers at the site were evacuated by 8.15am, she added.
“We swiftly notified and advised impacted customers to activate their business continuity plans,” she said.
W.Media, a tech publisher that focuses on data centre news, reported that the fire had led to “significant disruptions” for services hosted by tech companies like online retail giant Lazada and ByteDance, the parent company of video-sharing platform TikTok.
ByteDance declined to comment, and The Straits Times has contacted Lazada for details.
In a statement on its website, Alibaba Cloud – an arm of the China-based online retail giant Alibaba – said at 10.20am on Sept 10 that it detected “network access anomalies”, which caused some cloud services to function abnormally.
It later added that the abnormality was caused by the explosion of lithium batteries, which led to a fire and elevated temperatures.
An Alibaba Cloud spokesman said the company’s key focus is to minimise the impact of the disruption. He added that engineers are working with affected customers to restore normal services as soon as possible. - The Straits Times/ANN
