A major fire broke out at a large data center of NorthC Datacenters in Almere. The fire is burning in a room at the back of the building. Insurer Univé from Assen, among others, is affected.
There are several technical devices there, including the emergency power supply, the fire brigade said. That compartment is considered lost.
The smoke development can be seen far and wide. The Safety Region has sent an NL Alert. People in the vicinity of the fire are advised to keep windows and doors closed and to turn off (mechanical) ventilation.
Insurer Univé, whose head office is in Assen, was affected by the fire. One of the insurer’s IT suppliers has housed its infrastructure at the data center in Almere.
This means that the systems used to take out or change insurance policies and report damage are currently unavailable.
As a result, the website and app are less accessible and it is now not possible to take out insurance or report damage. Insurance and data cannot be changed either.
A spokesperson for Univé tells RTV Drenthe that they are working on a way to get everything back on the air. “We hope it will be resolved as soon as possible.” She emphasizes that the insurer can be reached by telephone and in store for members.
The fire brigade has scaled up the situation to a very large fire. Several emergency services are involved in the extinguishing work. The data center is located on an industrial estate on the east side of Almere and can be seen from the A6.
The fire brigade responded with large equipment, including a crash tender from Lelystad Airport. This has to do with a diesel tank in the building, which needs to be cooled. A crash tender has a large extinguishing capacity and is actually only used for aircraft fires.
According to the fire brigade, the priority now is to prevent the fire from spreading to other parts of the building.
In addition to Univé, Utrecht University (UU), the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and transport company Transdev also report that they are noticing the consequences of the major fire.
The University of Utrecht has several servers in the data center. The educational institution says it is experiencing a major impact from the fire. There are problems with applications and the website, the university said.
Infomedics, the organization that sends invoices on behalf of healthcare providers, is also experiencing problems. Due to the fire, they cannot be reached by telephone or chat.