South Korea faced widespread disruption as a major battery fire at a government data center on Friday knocked hundreds of essential state services offline. While the blaze was successfully extinguished, officials spent the weekend in a frantic effort to restore critical systems.
The outage crippled numerous vital functions. On Saturday, citizens found themselves unable to access ministry websites for official documents, the national postal service resorted to manual processing, threatening significant delays, and widely used mobile identification cards became inaccessible. Even government email services for employees were impacted.
According to Interior Vice Minister Kim Min-jae, the catastrophic fire ignited around 8:15 PM local time on Friday at the National Information Resources Service in Daejeon, central South Korea. The incident began when a lithium battery, critical for powering the facility’s computers, exploded during routine maintenance.
Initially, the fire directly affected approximately 70 government computer systems. However, to prevent potential overheating and further damage to other equipment, an additional 647 systems at the data center were proactively shut down on Friday night as firefighters worked to contain the blaze.
The prolonged inferno was finally brought under control by 6:00 PM local time on Saturday, roughly 22 hours after it started. Post-fire assessment by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety confirmed that 96 systems sustained direct damage, a higher count than initially reported.
Recovery efforts are now focused on stabilizing the data center’s environment, meticulously restoring optimal temperature and humidity levels before system restoration can properly begin. Interior Minister Yoon Ho-jung reported that by Saturday evening, approximately 250 of the 384 damaged batteries had been safely removed.
Priority in the restoration process is being given to undamaged systems that are crucial for public safety, protecting national assets, and maintaining economic activity, as stated by the minister on social media.
Discussions are underway regarding the relocation of the 96 systems severely impacted by the fire to an alternate data facility.
With a week-long national holiday fast approaching in early October, there are significant concerns that essential services, such as the postal system, might not return to full operation in time.
The widespread failures have sparked renewed debate about the adequacy of South Korea’s government backup systems. A prior 2023 network outage saw officials assert a three-hour recovery capability utilizing off-site branch centers, but the current incident proves more complex.
However, officials clarified on Saturday that unlike a straightforward network glitch, the prolonged fire-fighting operation significantly delayed the start of restoration efforts.
During a Saturday evening meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, Mr. Yoon emphasized that the objective extends beyond merely resuming services; it is about rebuilding public confidence.
The inferno triggered an intense overnight response, mobilizing over 200 firefighters and more than 60 engines. This challenging operation was made even more complex by the critical decision to avoid water, as it posed a severe risk of further battery explosions and server damage, explained Kim Ki-sun, Yuseong’s fire chief.
The Interior Ministry confirmed that one of the 13 workers present during the battery maintenance suffered a first-degree burn. Approximately 100 individuals were evacuated from the facility when the fire erupted.
As of Saturday morning, fire investigators had not yet determined the precise cause of the incident.
While some government websites were brought back online by Saturday morning using alternative servers, critical services like the national postal system and the financial network remained inaccessible, according to Mr. Kim.
South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok publicly apologized for the extensive inconvenience, assuring citizens that he had issued directives to prioritize the rapid restoration of all systems essential to daily life.
The Interior Ministry issued a public advisory on Saturday morning, urging citizens to verify service availability online before visiting any administrative offices.