S. Korea: Hundreds of online state services, systems disrupted in state data center fire
Hundreds of government online services and systems remained offline Saturday following a fire at the central state data center caused by a battery explosion, Yonhap reports.
The fire broke out at the National Information Resources Service in the central city of Daejeon after a lithium-ion battery exploded in a computer room on the fifth floor.
Officials said the explosion occurred in one of the center's uninterruptible power supply batteries while staff members were working to relocate them to the basement.
The fire left 647 online government services and systems down as of Saturday morning, including the mobile identification system and online postal service, according to officials.
Vice Interior Minister Kim Min-jae said the government suspended operations as a "preemptive" measure to safeguard the systems after the fire caused temperature and humidity control malfunctions that can lead to overheating.
The temperature and humidity control equipment is currently being repaired. Once this is complete, the government plans to bring the servers back online to restore the services, Kim said at a press conference, adding that critical services like postal and financial services will be restored first.
Nearly 10 hours after the breakout, the main blaze of the fire had been brought under control as of 6:30 a.m., and firefighters were working to ventilate the building. About 170 firefighting personnel were mobilized, along with 63 fire trucks and other equipment.
One worker handling the batteries sustained first-degree burns to the arms and face, while nearly 200 lithium-ion battery packs inside the room were destroyed in the fire.
At an emergency meeting Saturday morning, Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung raised the crisis management level for government information systems from "alert" to "serious."
The government will mobilize all available resources to resolve this incident as quickly as possible while doing its best to minimize inconveniences to the public, Yun said.
Prime Minister Kim Min-seok apologized for the service disruptions, saying the government will work to restore the affected services.
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