Sealand, a former offshore Data Haven, catches fire
Sealand, housed just outside UK coastal waters in the Thames Estuary, has caught fire on Friday 23rd June 2006, according to the EADT24 local newspaper.
Ryan Lackey and other cypherpunks are no longer associated with the HavenCo secure internet hosting company and the attempt to establish a Data Haven which flourished there in Sealand for a while..
UPDATE:
Harwich Lifeboat Station has some images of the fire and rescue operation at "The Roughs Towers".
Details of the damage:
Sealand in ruins after blaze 24 June 2006 09:21 EADT24 CRAIG ROBINSONA FORMER wartime fortress which is now a self-proclaimed independent state has been left devastated after a fierce blaze tore through the structure.
The so-called Principality of Sealand, seven miles off the coast of Felixstowe and Harwich, was evacuated at lunchtime yesterdayafter a generator caught fire.
[...]
Keith Churchman, of Harwich Royal National Lifeboat Institution, said: “The damage is very extensive. The fire started in a generator and spread quickly to the accommodation.
“There have been a number of explosions on board as the fire has engulfed gas bottles and batteries. Only one person was on Sealand at the time, whom we understand to be a watchman whose job was to maintain the generators and equipment.
“A team of firefighters was flown to the scene but because of the damage to the structure they decided not to go on board.
“A firefighting tug sprayed the whole structure with water in the hope this would eventually cool the fire and starve it of oxygen.”
A spokesperson for Suffolk Fire Service confirmed the fire was left to burn itself out and was under control by 3.10pm.
Remember that bigger, much more expensive "secure" internet data centres, are also at risk of fire and explosion e.g. the Swindon facility which housed the then Single Point of Failure of the UK Government Gateway which was down for a whole week, and the one which hosted many Local Government websites and the Labour Party website, which was destroyed by the Buncefield fuel depot fire near Hemel Hempstead.