Photos: Inside the Fisher fire

Photos taken by investigators after last week's Fisher Plaza fire show that it was contained to a relatively small area -- demonstrating the potential for even minor incidents to cripple websites for extended periods of time.

Seattle fire officials released the photo above and others below in response to our request today. Also see the full scene report (PDF, 2 pages) from the Seattle Fire Department, which classifies the fire as accidental and says it broke out at 11:13 pm on July 2.

Seattle fire investigators on the scene July 3 wrote that engineers at the facilty "suspect that water on the copper plates resulted in an arc" -- an electrical flash -- "and the subsequent fire damage." But Tony Little, the primary investigator on the report, said via phone today that based on further research, he now believes "water was not a contributing factor" in the fire.

There was lots of water on the scene, but Fisher Plaza officials say that came from a sprinkler triggered by the fire. That sprinkler doused the area, requiring power to the facility to be shut down -- which took dozens of websites offline, some for more than 24 hours.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, said Michael Finch, a vice president with Century Pacific LP, which provides asset management services to Fisher Communications for Fisher Plaza. Forensics experts have been on the scene, working with building engineers, property management, electrical subcontractors and Seattle City Light.

Finch flatly denied rumors that a separate incident a week earlier had forced the facility to run on backup power leading up to the incident, potentially contributing to the problem. Everything was operating normally, on standard power, until the incident late Thursday night, he said. The complex and data center facilities have been kept up to date and well-maintained, Finch said.

There was a separate fire on June 21, 2008, at Fisher Plaza East, according to city records. A fire investigator's report (PDF, 3 pages) attributed the 2008 incident to an electrical fire inside a transformer cabinet. However, unlike the more recent incident, that earlier fire didn't result in a widespread power outage at the facility, according to the report.

Here are more photos from last week's incident, from the Seattle Fire Investigation Unit. Any data center gurus out there see anything significant?

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