An “electrical incident” at the Google data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa has caused the critical injuries of three people.
According to the Council Bluffs Police Department, the three electricians suffered serious injuries as well as major burns as a result of an “arc flash” explosion.
Reports state that the individuals were flown to the nearby Nebraska Medical Center, where thankfully all were breathing and able to speak.
First responders arrived at the center shortly before noon following initial reports of a “large explosion” now being called an “electrical incident,” according to the Omaha World-Herald.
“It was definitely some sort of electrical issue,” Wood said.
BREAKING: Reports of explosion at Google data center in Iowa
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JUST IN: Electrical explosion reported at Google’s data center in Iowa
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“The full extent of their injuries is unknown; the Council Bluffs Fire Department and Police Department, in addition to the Nebraska Medical Center, don’t have more details to share at this time,” SFgate reported.
Google spokesperson Devon Smiley said in a statement:
“We are aware of an electrical incident that took place yesterday at Google’s data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, injuring three people onsite who are being treated and in stable condition.”
“The health and safety of all workers is our absolute top priority, and we are working closely with partners and local authorities to thoroughly investigate the situation and provide assistance as needed.”
Google has reported that the power outage and incident have nothing to do with each other, as the outage would likely be caused by a problem with a software update.
#BREAKING: Reports of explosion at Google data center in Iowa
Right now Thousands to million of users where having major issues with the web search service google as it was currently down as reports say an explosion has occurred at Google data center pic.twitter.com/fh9TFGRE9Q
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SFgate reported:
Google users worldwide reported a brief outage on Monday that affected Gmail, Maps. and Images search, but Google says that was due to a software update issue, and was unrelated to the arc flash incident in Iowa.
“We’re aware of a software update issue that occurred late this afternoon Pacific Time and briefly affected availability of Google Search and Maps, and we apologize for the inconvenience. We worked to quickly address the issue and our services are now back online,” a spokesperson wrote.
The Google Council Bluffs facility is one of the largest data centers that the company operates. In fact, the hubs help Google to maintain servers and pieces of hardware that allow its services to run 24 hours each day.
Google has over 16 data centers in the U.S. alone, with numerous others aboard as well.
The Council Bluffs incident occurred on the same day that Google services experienced an unusual outage for many users.
