Fire disrupts Web server farm

SEATTLE – A fire at a Seattle building disrupted a server farm that provides service to multiple Web sites – including one that facilitates electronic transactions for tens of thousands of businesses and Microsoft’s new search site.

The fire also affected television and radio stations in Seattle that broadcast from the building.

The small fire broke out around 11 p.m. Thursday in the basement of Fisher Plaza at an electrical vault – the section of the building where city power lines meet the building’s transformers, said Seattle City Light spokesman Scott Thomsen.

Thomsen said it appears equipment failure on the part of the customer caused the fire.

While the fire was small and easily contained by firefighters, the subsequent power failures damaged operations for many Web sites and services.

Among those affected was Authorize.net Holdings Inc., based in Marlborough, Mass. The company provides credit card services for more than 238,000 merchants. Authorize.net’s Web site was down Friday morning. However, the company is saying on its Twitter account that most of its services are back online. Calls to Authorize.net’s spokesman were not immediately returned Friday morning.

The travel section of Microsoft Corp.’s new search engine – Bing – was also disrupted. In a Web post on Bing.com, Microsoft said Bing Travel servers were knocked out because of the fire.

“This is isolated to Bing Travel only, and there has been no impact to any other aspects of Bing. We’re hard at work to restore service following this unexpected event and appreciate your patience,” the posting said.

How many Web sites experienced problems because of the fire was not immediately clear.

Rob Dunlop, vice president of operations for Fisher Communications Inc., said one of the main clients who uses the data center is Internap Network Services Corp., a company that manages data centers and routes Internet traffic. Calls to Internap were not immediately returned Friday.

The fire forced the evacuation of the building and disrupted the late night newscast, Dunlop said.

KOMO Radio and KOMO-TV were broadcasting Friday from remote locations.

Crews from several companies continue to work to get the building back online, using outside generators for power, officials said.

Dunlop said he hoped stations could resume operations in the building later Friday. The stations affected, which remained on the air, included KOMO-TV and KUNS-TV and KOMO, KPLX and KVI radio.

Dunlop said he has no official word on what caused the fire.

Verizon Communications Inc. spokesman Jon Davies said the company’s DSL service in the Seattle area was temporarily disrupted.