A catastrophic fire ripped through a major state data center in South Korea on Friday, triggering a nationwide digital meltdown that paralyzed hundreds of crucial government services. Officials spent the following day in a frantic race against time to bring these essential systems back online.
By Saturday, the ripple effects were felt across the country. Critical ministry websites, vital for accessing official documents, remained inaccessible. The national postal service was forced to revert to manual, offline processing, raising concerns about significant delivery delays. Furthermore, widely used mobile identification cards became unusable, and countless government employees found their email services completely non-operational.
The inferno originated at the National Information Resources Service in Daejeon, a central South Korean city, at approximately 8:15 p.m. on Friday. Vice Interior Minister Kim Min-jae confirmed in a Saturday news conference that the fire erupted when a lithium battery, part of the facility’s power supply for its computer systems, unexpectedly exploded during routine maintenance.
Initially, the fire knocked out servers supporting around 70 government systems. However, to prevent further damage and potential overheating of other critical equipment, the remaining 647 systems within the data center were deliberately powered down on Friday night as firefighters battled the blaze.
Although firefighters managed to bring the raging fire under control by 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, all data center systems remained resolutely offline throughout the morning. Mr. Kim explained that restoration efforts couldn’t even begin until the smoke fully dissipated and internal temperatures normalized, allowing the crucial cooling systems to be safely reactivated.
The incident sparked an arduous overnight response, engaging nearly 200 firefighters and over 60 engines, according to Kim Ki-sun, the fire chief of Daejeon’s Yuseong district. A significant challenge during the operation was the strict prohibition on using water, as it posed a severe risk of causing further lithium battery explosions and extensive damage to the sensitive servers.
Tragically, one contractor involved in the battery maintenance work suffered minor injuries due to the fire, confirmed Jung Gwang-yong, a data center official.
During the news conference, Lee Jae-yong, the data center director, stated that it was premature to estimate a timeline for system restoration. As of Saturday morning, fire investigators had yet to pinpoint the precise cause of the fire.
While some government websites were successfully rerouted and restored using alternative servers by Saturday morning, critical services like the national postal service and key financial systems remained offline. Mr. Kim noted these were top priorities for restoration.
South Korea’s Prime Minister, Kim Min-seok, offered his sincere apologies to the public for the widespread disruption. He affirmed that he had issued directives for all systems essential to daily life to be restored with the utmost urgency.
A public announcement from the Interior Ministry on Saturday morning advised citizens to verify service availability before attempting to visit any administrative agency.
“We kindly request your understanding for any potential delays or restrictions you may experience at our facilities,” the ministry’s statement read, reassuring the public that alternative measures, including manual processing and extended deadlines, were being put in place to mitigate the impact of the ongoing outage.