Fire, Power loss at Fisher Plaza in Seattle

Fri Jul 3 11:19:02 UTC 2009

Fisher Plaza, a self-styled carrier hotel in Seattle, and home to multiple
datacenter and colocation providers, has had a major issue in one of its
buildings late last night, early this morning.
The best information I am aware of is that there was a failure in the
main/generator transfer switch which resulted in a fire.  The sprinkler
system activated.  From speaking to the fire battalion chief, I am under the
impression that Seattle Fire did use water on the fire as well, but I am
unsure of this.

Given the failure location, generator power was not available, and cooling
failed.  UPS power to systems continued, and I can personally vouch that
they held out for well over an hour.  When we were able to access our
equipment, ambient air temps were well over 100 degrees in the room our
equipment is located in.

At least some, if not many circuits were affected.  Several large
co-location providers and other datacenters are located in the facility,
these facilities have no power.

As this was the main/generator switch, and it is now highly damaged, the
circuits in the area are damaged, and the entire area is doused in water, a
rapid restoration of power does not seem likely.  Fisher Plaza's phone
numbers now result in fast-busy signals, so I have no recent update from
them directly.

Interestingly, this building is also the production studios for several
Seattle TV and radio stations.

There is no ETA for resolution.

--D

-- 
--  Darren Bolding                  --
--  darren at bolding.org           --