Contractor sparked IT outage after gas release

A BLUNDERING contractor accidentally damaged a council’s main computer server, sparking a major IT outage affecting services, when they triggered a fire suppression system by mistake.

A leaked report at Sandwell Council showed the council was claiming £135,000 compensation after a contractor “accidentally triggered the manual emergency gas release activation”.

It is not clear who the contractor was or when the incident occurred in the basement of Sandwell Council House, in Oldbury.

It caused a loss of connectivity across the whole council for certain IT systems.

The council’s fire suppression system was automatically released, and flooded the room with gas suppressant, damaging ceiling tiles in the process.

The tile debris, as a result of the fire suppression gas, damaged the IT equipment.

The council said the gas release system can be manually overridden but neither staff based at Sandwell Council, nor the contractor, could activate the manual override.

A breakdown notes £52,000 of damage to IT equipment, £22,000 facilities management costs, and £60,000 to the council’s urban design and building services.

The report also notes the fire panel located within the facilities management office – which manages any fire alarm activation within the council house – “did not indicate the gas suppression system had been released”, only that there was a fire activation.

Sandwell Council said a redesign of the space holding the council’s main IT servers was being considered by councillors.

The scheme will look to make the space “sustainable, helping to reduce our overall carbon emission within Sandwell council house”.