Fire Incident Highlights Safety Issues at $3.2 Billion AI Data Center Construction
A fire at the unfinished Lake Mariner data center in Somerset, New York, exposed a lack of critical safety information and inadequate systems for local firefighters responding to the blaze.
An incident in early June involving a fire at the Lake Mariner data center construction site in Somerset, New York, revealed significant gaps in safety preparedness and information access for the local fire department. Firefighters reportedly encountered a building with no working alarm or suppression system and three non-functional hydrants.
According to reports, crucial safety documents, which firefighters are legally entitled to access, were also destroyed in the fire. Steve Matisz, chief of the Barker Fire Department, described his crew entering the building "kind of blind" and facing unidentified chemicals due to the missing safety sheets, calling the situation "difficult."
The $3.2 billion campus, located on the site of a former coal mine on Lake Ontario, is a major AI data center development in New York with multiple stakeholders. TeraWulf owns and operates the facility on land leased from a company controlled by its own CEO.
Fluidstack, a UK-based AI company, is set to manage the data center's operations. Google holds warrants for a future 14 percent equity stake and has agreed to guarantee Fluidstack's lease payments. The facility is being built to serve the compute demand of AI companies like Anthropic.