European data center firm NorthC has suffered a fire at one of its facilities in the Netherlands.

“On Thursday morning, May 7, a fire broke out at our data center on Rondebeltweg in Almere around 08:45,” the company said in an announcement.

An update at 3:15 pm local time noted the fire has not yet been extinguished.

“The fire department has indicated that it will need several more hours to bring the fire fully under control and safely clear the building,” the company said.

“Therefore, it is currently not possible to enter the premises. As soon as the location is cleared, NorthC will immediately start a technical investigation to determine the impact and take appropriate emergency measures.

NorthC said the fire is located at the rear of the building, where technical facilities are located.

“At this moment, nothing can be said with certainty regarding the cause of the fire and the exact extent of the damage to the infrastructure,” NorthC said.

Municipal organization Safety Region Flevoland (Veiligheidsregio Flevoland) said that five fire engines, three ladder trucks, and a “firefighting robot” are on the scene. A diesel tank is located and is being cooled using a crash tender from Lelystad Airport as a precaution.

Utrecht University has noted that the incident has impacted its systems. Local water board Hoogheemraadschap De Stichtse Rijnlanden said it has suffered a network outage.

Local press reports Transdev said its bus and tram services were also impacted. Surf, the Dutch ICT service provider for education and research institutions, has also reported that a number of its members have infrastructure running in the data center.

IBM Cloud has also reported issues at the data center hosting its Amsterdam 03 facility due to a fire.

Update May 8:

The fire was brought under control later on Thursday (May 7), and the company began an inspection that night

In its latest update, the company said work to install the power supply and restore power and cooling to customer equipment in phases is expected to take up to 72 hours.

"Our teams are working day and night to complete this as quickly as possible," the company said.

The facility is owned by DC Keppel REIT. In its own announcement about the incident, it noted there were no injuries, and the fire has now been put out. Keppel said the event is "not expected to have a material impact" on its distribution per unit (DPU) for FY 2026.

Original story resumes:

Located at Rondebeltweg 62 in the Sallandsekant business park outside Amsterdam, the three-story Almere facility offers 11MW across 26,000 sqm (279,860 sq ft). Built in 2008 for KPN, Keppel's Securus Fund acquired the site in 2013, before Keppel DC REIT acquired the property in 2020.

NorthC was formed in 2019 from the merger of Dutch data center firms TDCG and NLDC, originally a subsidiary of Dutch telecoms company KPN. Antin Infrastructure Partners acquired the company in December 2025 from DWS.

The company currently has more than a dozen data centers across the Netherlands, eight in Germany, and four in Switzerland, with more in development in all three markets.