A large fire broke out at a data centre in the Netherlands on 7 May, leading to significant disruptions and service outages for educational institutions, public transport, and government agencies

Emergency services were first alerted to the blaze at the NorthC data centre on Rondebeltweg in Almere shortly after 8.45 am. Local media reported that five fire appliances, three ladder trucks, and additional support were mobilised to the scene. Safety protocols were activated, and the building was evacuated with no reports of injuries.  

In an update, company NorthC said that the fire was raging at the rear of the building, where the technical facilities were located: “The fire brigade has indicated that it will need several more hours to get the fire fully under control and to safely release the building. At this moment, it is therefore not yet possible to enter the building.”

It added that “nothing can be said with certainty about the cause of the fire or the exact extent of the damage to the infrastructure.”

NorthC CEO Alexandra Schless confirmed: “All people present were evacuated from the building in time. We are working closely with the fire brigade and the safety region to bring the situation under control.”

The incident led to extensive disruption, with Utrecht University reporting that its systems had been impacted, and Transdev reporting disruptions to its bus and tram services. IBM Cloud infrastructure, hosted at the NorthC facility, was also impacted. In a post to its customers, IBM shared that “due to the fire and the resulting power loss, all equipment and servers in this facility went offline, resulting in loss of access to IBM Cloud Services operating out of this facility.”

It said: “NorthC’s emergency response teams are working to restore power to the facility and essential services. In parallel, IBM is moving equipment into server rooms with restored access to power.”

Around 20.50pm, after 12 hours spent tackling the flames, the fire brigade reported that the blaze had been brought under control. NorthC was given partial access to the building shortly after midnight the same evening, with the company sharing: “Our experts are on site and are continuing to assess the damage. Based on this, we will determine which steps are needed for the definitive restoration of the power supply.

“The provision of a temporary power supply has been initiated, and our teams are working on the preparations for its placement and connection.”

During its initial inspections of the building following the fire, the company noted that smoke in the halls was limited and that the fire compartmentation had prevented the smoke from spreading further through the building.

“Based on the initial findings of the technical investigation, we can provide more clarity on the recovery time. The work to install the power supply and to restore power and cooling to customer equipment in phases is expected to take up to 72 hours. Installing a large number of generators, UPS systems and distribution units, as well as laying more than a kilometre of cable, is a complex operation,” the company said.

“Our teams are working day and night to complete this as quickly as possible.”

 

(Photograph by NorthC)