Booth Fire Shuts Down Flash Memory Summit Show Floor

Image 1 of 5

Update 3, 8/10/17, 9:45am PT: We visited the FMS show floor to check out the damage to Innodisk's booth, which you can see for yourself in the album above.

Update 2, 8/9/17, 10:35am PT: The FMS show floor is closed and will not re-open during the event. The official update is as follows: "The Exhibit Hall is closed for FMS2017 per the order of the Fire Marshall." We still don't know what caused the fire that shut the whole place down. 

Companies are still trying to hold meetings and briefings. The report from our man on the ground is that it's a bit chaotic. People are trying to meet in hotel rooms next door to the conference center, but there are only so many of those available.

Update, 8/8/17, 11:15pm PT: Innodisk reached out to Tom's Hardware to say that, according to officials, the company was not at fault for the fire. The cause is still either under investigation or has simply not yet been disclosed to the public. The FMS show floor remains closed until further notice.

Original article, 8/8/17, 12:20pm PT:

We expected some hot hardware at the Flash Memory Summit (FMS) in Santa Clara, CA, but not like this: A booth actually caught fire this morning.

We heard alarm bells in our room early in the morning; the alarms continued for at least three hours (thereby making sleep rather uncomfortable). Just an hour or so ago, we learned that the Innodisk booth was on fire on the showroom floor in the adjacent building--the Santa Clara Convention Center.

The booth is right next to Seagate, and many speculated early on that Seagate was to blame for the blaze. That's not the case, though, and the new Seagate SSDs are fine. The Innodisk gear, as you can see from the picture we grabbed, is not okay.

Fortunately, no people were injured as a result of the blaze. We don't yet know what started the fire, but an investigation is underway.

As a result of the conflagration, the show floor is temporarily closed. It's officially scheduled to reopen at 4pm PT, but we're expecting an announcement shortly, as well.