... South Korean authorities are racing to restore government online systems after a major fire broke out late on Friday at a central state data centre in Daejeon, crippling scores of public services.

The blaze began at about 8.20pm local time on Friday inside the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) facility, after what officials believe was an explosion in a lithium-ion uninterruptible power supply battery that had been disconnected for relocation to the basement.

According to Reuters, the battery was reportedly produced by LG Energy Solution.

The battery explosion triggered a “thermal runaway”, sending extreme heat through the server room and making it unsafe for firefighters to adopt more aggressive extinguishing tactics.

Around 170 to 200 firefighters, supported by more than 60 fire trucks, were deployed to the scene and worked through the night. The blaze was declared largely extinguished by 6.30am on Saturday, though officials said it partly reignited later in the morning, forcing crews to continue ventilation work.
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Because of the damage to cooling, humidity control and power systems, officials ordered the shutdown of more than 600 servers to protect data integrity. In all, 647 government systems housed in the Daejeon centre were suspended, which officials said amounted to nearly one-third of the government’s total online information systems.
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