Twitter’s data center knocked out by extreme heat in California
Twitter’s data center knocked out by extreme heat in California
SAN FRANCISCO — It’s been nearly a week since a massive forest fire that razed the northern part of California raged through the town of Paradise and the surrounding areas, incinerating at least one structure — and possibly more — in this city on an East Coast Indian reservation.
But what exactly happened at the facility on the South San Francisco peninsula has been a mystery ever since firefighters arrived on the scene on Oct. 8 and began trying to contain the blaze.
The answer is about as difficult to figure out as one would expect from a sprawling, web-savvy company that is at the forefront as a hub of public conversation on tech and culture.
But as of Tuesday, Twitter’s data center in the Bay Area appeared to have survived, though the company wouldn’t comment on the extent of damages.
“Our understanding is, the fire was pretty contained at the time we were there,” said Chris Ciaccia, a spokesman for the company, which has since moved the facility to another part of Northern California to provide a more secure location during fires.
Twitter has told some employees to stay on in Paradise, Ciaccia said, and some have returned to their homes there. But the company is not commenting on the extent of the damage, Ciaccia said. It hasn’t given a figure on the number of structures that were lost in the fire, he said.
He said the company hasn’t received any reports of damage to buildings at its data center in nearby Chabot and no company employees are missing.
An aerial view of the data center in San Jose, where Twitter is located. (Brian van der Brug via Getty Images)
The data center is a sprawling complex of buildings with about 100 workers and a large area where employees work on its own hardware systems. The facility is equipped with the latest security technology, Ciaccia said, and the network was built to withstand the most difficult weather conditions.
The blaze was the worst fire in California’s history to strike the state, authorities said.