Another data center in Daejeon, South Korea, has caught fire, less than a week after a blaze at a government facility in the same city crippled the nation’s digital services.

The fire at the data center, which belongs to Korean IT services provider Lotte, started at about 4.59am on Thursday. In response, 21 vehicles and 62 firefighters raced to the scene, and the fire was extinguished by 5.38am. No injuries have been reported.

According to a report from Korea JoongAng Daily, officials believe the fire started in the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) on the second floor of the building, and believe the battery in the UPS may have been to blame, though an investigation is ongoing and police intend to question Lotte staff.

Lotte operates four data centers in South Korea, with facilities in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Yongin - its newest campus, which opened in 2021 - as well as Daejeon. The Daejeon data center has been operating since 2010.

It is not known whether Lotte's services were impacted by the fire. DCD has contacted the company for comment.

The emergency services in Daejeon are familiar with the sight of data centers, having spent last weekend battling a battery fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) data center, which impacted 647 government services.

As of Monday, only 73 of the services provided by NIRS had been restored, and it is expected to take up to a month to bring everything back online.

Four arrests have been made by officers investigating whether professional negligence led to the NIRS fire.