Fire at New York AI Data Center Highlights Safety Gaps and Complex Ownership
A blaze erupted in the unfinished Lake Mariner AI facility in Somerset, New York, revealing missing alarms, dead hydrants and burned safety paperwork.
In early June, an unfinished building at the Lake Mariner AI data center in Somerset, New York, caught fire, exposing a lack of basic safety infrastructure. Fire crews reported no working alarm, no fire-suppression system and three dead hydrants, while the safety documents they were entitled to review were said to have been consumed by the blaze. Barker Fire Department chief Steve Matisz described the response as “blind,” with firefighters confronting dense black smoke from unidentified chemicals.
The $3.2 billion campus is owned by TeraWulf, which leases the former coal-mine site, while UK-based Fluidstack will run the facility; Google holds warrants for a future 14 percent stake and guarantees Fluidstack’s lease payments, and Anthropic is among the AI firms slated to use its compute power. TeraWulf claims responsibility for operational safety and has introduced Knox boxes, additional hydrants and safety-data-sheet “go-bags” after an after-action review, yet the fire chief says the hydrants are still dry and work remains incomplete.
Why it matters
The incident underscores safety risks in rapidly expanding AI infrastructure and the challenges of coordinating emergency response among multiple corporate owners.
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