A television station in Montana reported the outage was related to a fire at a Wells Fargo srver farm in the Minneapolis suburb of Shoreview, MN. The chief of the Lake Johana Fire District, which serves Shoreview, told KCBS Radio there was no fire, but there was an accidental activation of a Halon fire-suppression system at the Wells Fargo facility.
Chief Tim Boehlke said the presence of construction dust apparently triggered the Halon system, commonly used in server farms where the use of water-based sprinkler systems would damage sensitive equipment. At 9:40 AM PST, Chief Boehlke said the fire-suppression system was being recharged but he could give no estimate as to when it would be back online.
About twenty minutes later, Wells Fargo issued a statement which read in part: "We’re experiencing system issues due to a power shutdown at one of our facilities, initiated after smoke was detected following routine maintenance. We’re working to restore services as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience."