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A lithium-ion battery explosion at a key government data center in South Korea caused a fire that took down over 600 essential services, disrupting everyday life in the tech-savvy country.
The incident started Friday night at the NIRS facility in Daejeon, impacting postal banking, mobile ID, tax collection, and emergency services.
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The blaze started around 8:20 PM local time when a disconnected battery exploded during relocation work. The explosion triggered a “thermal runaway,” generating intense heat that complicated firefighting efforts for nearly 10 hours.
Authorities shut down 647 government IT systems at the Daejeon center to prevent overheating and damage. The fire was extinguished by Saturday evening, but the server room’s heat delayed restoration efforts.
The nationwide outage severely disrupted essential public services. Mobile ID systems were unavailable, causing issues for travelers at airports.
The national postal service’s banking system failed, disrupting card payments and money transfers, and emergency services lost vital tracking for the 119 rescue system. Additionally, government email networks and the national legal database went offline.
South Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety is guiding recovery efforts, focusing on public safety and economic consequences.
Safety Minister Yun Hojung confirmed that by Monday, 46 services were restored, including the main public services portal, Government24, and parts of the Korea Post’s financial systems.
Authorities reported that 96 systems affected by the fire will be challenging to restart, and the timeline for full recovery is unclear. One worker suffered first-degree burns.
Prime Minister Kim Min-seok apologized for the disruption, recognizing the risks of centralizing critical systems.
In response to the crisis, President Lee Jae Myung has ordered a “significant improvement” in the security of government systems to prevent future outages.
This is the second major data center fire in South Korea in three years, after a 2022 fire that affected the KakaoTalk app for 50 million users.
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