Data Center Explosion, Fire or FBI Bust?
June 3, 2008
Update: Interview with Yvonne Donaldson of The Planet.
What is going on in Houston? Reports range from explosions, to fires to FBI Raids. The Planet operates a data center in Houston that recently went offline (I wrote about it here). The company claimed power to the facility was interrupted when a transformer exploded. Official reports that three walls were blown down causing a fire; but also claimed no servers were destroyed. Observers on the scene indicated they didn’t see a single fire truck or emergency vehicle during the incident. We contacted the Houston Fire Department who indicated that they had no idea what we were talking about. We heard reports that the fire marshal was keeping employees out of the facility and we called the Houston Fire Department for a second time, but this time the representative indicated the would call us back, we haven’t been contacted since our call. This afternoon we talked to a customer who claimed to have entered the facility, but after confronting him I learned that he didn’t actually get in. By the end of the day I talked to another customer who indicated that the FBI was swarming all over the facility, removing servers. Who knows what is going on, but it sounds crazy. Anyone have the REAL scoop? Please contact me.
