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There is not enough published evidence to verify that data center fires and power failures have doubled since 2024. An October 9, 2026 roundup describes a community register of 90 publicly reported incidents since 2014, but does not show annual totals, the underlying entries, or how incidents are counted. Separate Uptime Institute survey findings provide outage context, not proof of a doubling.

What the 90-incident figure does—and does not—show

The Data Center Rundown reported on October 9, 2026, that a community member had compiled a register of 90 publicly reported data center fires and power failures since 2014. The roundup also relayed a request for readers to identify missing incidents. That total is a description of the register, not an independently verified annual incident statistic. The Data Center Rundown

To establish that incidents doubled since 2024, readers would need comparable totals for two clearly defined periods—for example, a specified period before 2024 and an equally long period after it. The roundup does not provide those yearly or period totals, the register itself, or its counting rules. The headline claim therefore cannot be confirmed from the available figures.

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What would make a doubling comparison credible?

A transparent register would need enough detail to show that the compared totals use the same scope and method. Key questions include:

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  • Timeframe: What exact start and end dates are being compared, and are the periods equal in length?
  • Incident definition: What qualifies as a data center fire or power failure, and are the two types counted together or separately?
  • Counting unit: Is an event affecting multiple facilities counted once or multiple times?
  • Duplicates and corrections: How are repeated news reports, revised accounts, and corrected entries handled?
  • Reporting and inclusion: Did the register’s coverage, visibility, or criteria change over time?

Without these details, a change in the number of public entries could reflect changes in reporting or inclusion as well as changes in actual incidents. The roundup does not establish which explanation applies.

Why Uptime Institute’s survey findings are not a confirmation

Network World’s May 14, 2026 summary of Uptime Institute findings reported that power failures accounted for 45% of impactful data center outages in the latest survey data. Uptime also described major data center fires as gradually increasing in recent years, with lithium-ion batteries in UPS systems contributing to some incidents. Those observations concern a survey’s outage categories and a qualitative trend description; neither supplies annual counts that verify a doubling of publicly reported fires and power failures. Network World

The measures answer different questions:

Measure What it describes What it can establish here
Community incident register, as described by The Data Center Rundown in 2026 90 publicly reported fires and power failures since 2014; the roundup does not show the entries, annual totals, or methodology. A reported cumulative register total, not a year-by-year trend or a doubling.
Uptime Institute survey findings, summarized by Network World in 2026 Operator-reported outage experience and causes; power represented 45% of impactful outages in the latest survey data. Context about outages and their causes, not a count of public fire and power-failure incidents.

A percentage of impactful outages is not an absolute incident count. It cannot, by itself, show whether the number of power failures rose over time, much less whether combined public reports of fires and power failures doubled.

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What the broader outage figures say

Uptime Institute’s 2026 survey findings, as summarized by Network World, also distinguish end-to-end IT service outages from facility incidents. The reported causes were networking or connectivity (23%), power (21%), no IT services outages (19%), IT system or software (18%), third-party IT services (10%), cooling (8%), and other causes (2%). These are survey response shares about service outages, not counts of data center fires or power failures.

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The same coverage reported that 50% of operators said they had experienced an impactful outage in the preceding three years, down from 74% in 2020. Uptime’s reported outage frequency per site had declined for five consecutive years, while around one in ten respondents said their most recent outage was serious or severe. These findings concern operator-reported experience and do not confirm or disprove a separate public incident-register trend.

“Data center outage” is broader than “data center fire or power failure.” Network, software, third-party service, and cooling problems can disrupt IT services without being a fire or a power failure at a facility. Treating all these categories as interchangeable would make a trend comparison misleading.

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Which incidents are missing?

The October 9, 2026 roundup relayed the register compiler’s request for readers to identify missing publicly reported incidents, but it did not publish the register’s entries or a method for checking completeness. Without the underlying list, readers cannot reliably name specific omissions or determine whether an event meets the register’s criteria.

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A useful correction would identify a public report and explain which facility and event it describes, so the compiler can check for duplicates and apply the same inclusion rules. Until the list and rules are available, the missing-incident question remains open.

Bottom line on the headline

The reported total of 90 incidents since 2014 and Uptime Institute’s survey findings are not enough to establish that data center fires and power failures doubled since 2024. A defensible claim requires a transparent incident register with comparable period totals, consistent definitions, and a documented method. For now, the doubling should be treated as unverified.

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