Explosion Causes By “Electrical Incident” At Google Data Centre Leaves 3 Injured: Report

Three workers at a Google Data Centre in Iowa, the United States, were injured in an explosion, according to a report in Newsweek. The three workers – all electricians – were transported to the local hospital after suffering severe burns, the outlet further said.

The electricians were working on a substation near the data centre when an “electrical incident” caused an explosion, commonly known as an arc flash. The condition of one of them is said to be serious.

A post was shared on Twitter by the city of Council Bluffs on Tuesday informing about the incident and the condition of the three injured people. According to the post, one electrician had a lower torso injury, while the other suffered burns to the face, left arm, and thigh.

Large Electrical Explosion/No fire
10410 Bunge Ave/Google Plant
Responding: E41, M3 Extra squad M6
Lifenet on air-standby
Multiple people injured, several burn patients
– One has a lower torso injury
– An other has burns to face left arm and thigh

— Council Bluffs Scanner (@CBScanner) August 8, 2022

Jim Wood, an assistant chief of the Council Bluffs Fire Department, told local publication Omaha World Herald that first responders were summoned to the data centre at 11:59 am to a report of an electrical occurrence on the facility. Scanner traffic showed that there were first indications of a “large explosion”, but Mr Wood did not confirm specifics, according to the outlet.

According to Mr Wood, all of the patients were conscious and communicating following the incident.

The fire department is on an investigation to know the cause of the incident. Google’s facility is one of the company’s largest data centres, located near Lake Manawa State Park. Hundreds of supercomputers, which are high-tech computers used to store and analyse massive quantities of data, are housed in the facility.