AI data centre fires overwhelm emergency responders
In Somerset, New York, a fire broke out in one unfinished building of a data centre under construction in early June. So they called the local fire department. [Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, archive] The fire was a difficult one, with heavy smoke in a windowless lab, and it had been burning for a…
In Somerset, New York, a fire broke out in one unfinished building of a data centre under construction in early June. So they called the local fire department. [Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, archive] The fire was a difficult one, with heavy smoke in a windowless lab, and it had been burning for a while. Also, there was no fire alarm. Also, the fire hydrants weren’t hooked up. The local fire chief said: We go into the building kind of blind, and there’s chemicals in there. There are MSDS [material safety data sheet] sheets that we should be getting, but when I asked for the MSDS sheets I was told they were burned up in the fire. Data centres are going up really quickly — and they keep catching fire. Two Amazon data centres in Jerome Township in Ohio have called the local fire department 84 times between 2021 and 2025. [Columbus Dispatch] Of course, Amazon is not paying for this — they got a ten year tax abatement. The town pays for the emergency services, and it’s feeling the strain. Jerome Township ended up freezing new data centres for nine months. Data centres catching fire has been a chronic problem for years. Several data center fires around the world seem to have started from uninterruptible power supplies with lithium batteries. And data centres keep using more lithium batteries. [Data Centre Dynamics] When all this is over, I’m wondering if we’ll see some post-collapse surplus data centres with reasonable insurance just … spontaneously combust! Who can explain it? Video — PodcastSource: Pivot to AI — Published — Category: Business