Portland Data Center Fire Causes Global Messaging Outage

A fire at a Hillsboro, Oregon data center leased by Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) caused significant disruptions to the platform’s direct messaging services, impacting users around the world from early Thursday until full restoration by Friday morning, May 23, 2025.

Incident Details

• The fire broke out Thursday morning in a room containing battery installations at the Hillsboro Technology Park, just outside Portland.
• Firefighters from Hillsboro Fire and Rescue responded at 10:21 a.m. and found the battery room heavily smoke-filled, though the blaze did not spread to other parts of the facility.
• Emergency crews remained on-site for several hours to ensure the fire was fully contained and that the building was safe.
• All personnel were safely evacuated and no injuries were reported.

Impact on X Platform

• The fire triggered a major global outage on X, particularly affecting direct messaging services. Nearly 6,000 users worldwide reported issues accessing private messages, according to Downdetector.com.
• X’s engineering team acknowledged the disruption, stating: “X is aware some of our users are experiencing performance issues on the platform today. We are experiencing a data center outage and the team is actively working to remediate the issue”.
• The outage was resolved and services fully restored by Friday morning, but some users may continue to experience limited access to messaging features through the weekend as the platform upgrades its system.

Background and Response

• The affected data center is operated by Digital Realty, a major global provider, though it is unclear if other tenants were impacted.
• The fire originated in a battery room, highlighting ongoing concerns about the risks associated with lithium-ion backup power systems in large-scale data centers.
• Hillsboro Fire and Rescue and Digital Realty emphasized that safety and facility integrity were their top priorities, and that the situation was under control.
• The incident comes after X consolidated its data center operations in Portland and Atlanta following the closure of its Sacramento facility in 2022, a move that had previously caused another significant outage.

Platform Upgrades

• In the wake of the outage, X is reportedly accelerating upgrades to its messaging infrastructure, including the introduction of end-to-end encrypted communications and new features. Some users may experience intermittent disruptions as these updates are deployed.

The Hillsboro fire underscores the vulnerability of digital platforms to physical infrastructure incidents and the importance of robust contingency planning for global online services.