WTF? Diesel spill at Fisher Plaza |
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WTF? Diesel spill at Fisher Plaza
Jeremy Grater photo, via FriendFeed
What the heck is going on over at Fisher Plaza? Three days after an apparent electrical fire left the Seattle office complex and data center without power, Fisher Plaza was evacuated again today, this time because of a diesel spill.
The spill was unrelated to last week's power outage or to the backup generators currently powering the facility, said Michael Finch, a vice president with Century Pacific LP, which provides asset management services to Fisher Communications for Fisher Plaza. The building was evacuated as a precaution, he said, and there was no impact on the data center or other operations.
The official explanation: Approximately 50 gallons 30 gallons (see update below) of diesel were spilled in a fuel tank room after two wires were crossed during repairs to a helicopter fuel station, Finch said. During subsequent tests of the fuel station, the crossed wires energized a pump that caused a full tank to overflow. The spill was contained in the fuel tank room using spill kits, Finch said.
Fisher Plaza is home to KOMO TV and KOMO Radio plus data center operations for dozens of websites. Some sites were down for more than 24 hours on Friday as a result of the earlier power outage.
Update, Tuesday: To answer some of the questions in the comments, I followed up today with Finch, who confirmed that while the wires were crossed during the repair of a helicopter fuel station, the resulting diesel spill was generator fuel. He also said that additional information he received put the spill more in the realm of 30 gallons.
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John Cook is co-founder and executive editor of TechFlash. He has been covering the technology beat for nearly a decade, writing about startups, entrepreneurs and venture capital, most recently serving as a reporter/blogger at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
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