Fire at New York AI data center raises questions about who is responsible

In short: A fire at the Lake Mariner data center project in Somerset, New York, highlighted how unclear safety and oversight can be when several companies share one site.

What's going on

In early June, a fire broke out in an unfinished building at the Lake Mariner data center site. Local firefighters said they entered with limited information. They reportedly found no working fire alarm, no fire suppression system, and hydrants that did not work.

The fire chief said his crew faced thick black smoke from chemicals they could not identify because the safety papers were not available. Those papers are meant to tell first responders what is stored in a building, like a label on a cleaning bottle. No one was hurt, and construction continued.

Lake Mariner is a large AI data center buildout, planned to draw up to 500 megawatts of power. Several groups are tied to it. TeraWulf owns and operates the site, Fluidstack is expected to run the center, Google has warrants that could convert into a 14 percent stake later, and Anthropic is one of the AI companies expected to use the computing capacity.

After the fire, TeraWulf said it is responsible for operational safety and emergency preparedness. It also said it added items like Knox boxes (secure boxes that can hold building keys for firefighters), more hydrants, and “go-bags” with safety data sheets. The local fire chief later said hydrants still appeared dry.

What to watch

New York lawmakers passed a bill that would add stricter rules for large data centers, but it has not been signed. Even with new rules, Lake Mariner was permitted earlier, and the bigger issue may remain, when many companies benefit from a project, it can be hard for the public to know who must answer when something goes wrong.

Source: Arstechnica