Amazon Web Services (AWS) has confirmed a fire at one of its data centres in the United Arab Emirates, leading to temporary service disruptions in the region. The incident occurred in the early hours of March 1, 2026, and impacted one of the company’s availability zones.
According to AWS, at around 4:30 AM PST, one of its availability zones in the Middle East (UAE) region was affected after objects struck the facility. The impact caused sparks, which led to a fire inside the data centre. As a safety measure, power to the affected area was shut down while emergency teams worked to control the situation.
AWS stated that local authorities responded promptly and that the fire was brought under control. However, the shutdown led to service interruptions for customers using resources in the impacted availability zone.
What was affected
An availability zone refers to one or more data centres within a region that operate independently to ensure reliability. In this case, the affected zone was part of the UAE region. AWS clarified that other availability zones in the same region remained operational and were not impacted by the fire.
Some users reported issues such as difficulty launching new virtual machines, connectivity problems, and increased error rates for certain cloud services. Businesses relying heavily on that specific availability zone experienced temporary disruptions.
AWS said it is working to restore full power and connectivity as quickly and safely as possible. The company has not provided an exact timeline for complete recovery but indicated that restoration efforts are ongoing.
Company response and customer advisory
AWS has advised customers to shift workloads to other availability zones or regions if possible. Cloud infrastructure is typically designed for redundancy, meaning businesses can distribute applications across multiple zones to reduce the impact of localized outages.
In a statement, AWS said it continues to monitor the situation closely and will provide updates as services are restored. The company emphasised that safety remains the top priority.
Impact on businesses in the region
The incident highlights the importance of disaster recovery planning for organisations using cloud services. While AWS infrastructure is built to handle disruptions, events such as fires or power outages can still affect specific zones.
Amazon launched its UAE cloud region to support growing digital demand across the Middle East. The region serves startups, enterprises, government agencies and global companies operating in the area.
As restoration efforts continue, businesses affected by the outage are expected to gradually regain full access to services. AWS has not reported any injuries related to the incident and confirmed that further updates will be shared as recovery progresses.
