Fire At Italian Web Host

A fire at the server farm of Italian web host Aruba Internet forced tens of thousands of websites offline last week.

Aruba is one of Italy's largest Web hosting services. The company said that the fire at its primary server farm in the central Italian town of Arezzo first knocked out its backup power source, and automatic fire safety systems forced off the main power. The fire did not spread to servers or rooms where data are stored, however. The fire struck at about 4am local time, and it took 3 ½ hours to extinguish. Restoring service took longer, and power was not fully restored for about 11 hours following the blaze. Websites were slowly coming back online across the country, with sites for companies in Tuscany working again by midday.