The team was called after a gas suppression system was activated in the server room and unloaded gas and debris onto the IT equipment; a portable fire extinguisher was also accidentally deployed adding further contaminants on to the live equipment.
After receiving the initial emergency call at midday, a senior operations manager was onsite within two hours. The manager completed a detailed survey of the room and equipment and put a full emergency delivery plan together with the client. A team of highly-trained specialist technicians were deployed and onsite within five hours of the original call to begin the clean-up.
IT racks were micro-vacuumed and anti-statically wiped internally and externally; internals of the IT equipment were meticulously micro-vacuumed and cleaned; the room interior was cleaned to ISO14644-1 Class 8 Standards; and an indoor air quality test was completed.
Technicians worked throughout the night to restore the room to its original state as the college couldn’t afford any additional downtime with staff and students dependent on the systems to complete work the following day.
Mike Meyer, Sales Director at ABM Critical Solutions says that thanks to the quick response of his team there was a very low mean time to recovery (MTTR): “None of the IT equipment experienced any long-term damage thanks to our quick response and thorough clean to remove all the abrasive fire suppression materials,” he explains.
“This situation underlines the critical importance of understanding the proper fire safety equipment that should be specified within any data facility,” he adds. “Should an emergency situation such as this occur, calling in an expert like ABM as quickly as possible can prevent an accident becoming a much more serious incident.”
