The fires and explosions at an oil depot near London have knocked some prominent UK sites offline, and forced others to relocate to new servers. The explosions Sunday morning damaged a nearby data center operated by Northgate Information Services, which housed a number of popular UK web destinations. Among them was audio retailer Richer Sounds, whose site went offline at the time of the explosion:

The site of the UK Labour Party was also out of service due to the fire. The party has set up a temporary site at PIPEX Communications while it seeks to recover the files for its site.

A statement from Northgate indicated that backup equipment was unusable. “The fabric of the building and the fixtures and equipment inside have been badly damaged,” Northgate said. “The back-up systems that were in place have also been rendered inoperable. Northgate’s ability to service its customers has therefore been temporarily affected.” Northgate said its business continuity plan will allow it to restore services using other data centers.