Fireproofing the Digital World: Client and Insurer Voices in Data Center Design

19 September 2025

Since being designated as Critical National Infrastructure by the UK Government, it is difficult to articulate the significance of data centers in today’s modern world.

While the risk of a fire occurring within a data center is low, the consequences of even a minor incident, such as service interruptions, data loss, and reputational harm, can be substantial. These are risks that sit at the forefront of the minds of both the Data Center Operator and their clients. To address this, fire engineering consultancies must embed fire safety into both the design and operation of a data center to ensure that the risk of fire remains low and that in the event of a fire, the resulting impact is limited.

This amplified potential for damage or business disruption highlights the need for a fire safety design that not only meets the life safety requirements of the Building Regulations but also meets additional property protection requirements to reduce operational and financial risk. This article will review some additional requirements which are often set out by the Client and their Insurer and how they can be considered and addressed in fire strategies for these complex projects.

Fire Detection and Alarm Systems

To control fires or limit damage, data center fire detection and alarm systems must provide the earliest possible warning. This usually means going beyond standard requirements, with Automatic Fire Detection and Alarm Systems tailored to data center risks.

Aspirating detection is common in critical areas, giving early warning to trigger fire investigation or suppression interlocks. Specialist systems, such as hydrogen venting from battery rooms and fuel leak detection around diesel generators can be also integrated. This interleaving of detection methods helps address site-specific risks, improving both sensitivity and reliability.

Automatic Suppression Systems

To control fire spread within the data center, suppression systems are often required across all business-critical areas. The provision of sprinklers generally relies on the property protection recommendations provided by alternative guidance produced by NFPA, FM or LPCB; creating design challenges that require specialist designer input. Instead of using a single specification of sprinkler suppression, systems are often tailored to the areas in which the sprinkler system is installed.

Water leaks present an equally high risk to data centers, therefore, alternative methods like gaseous or foam suppression may be applied in areas with specific risks or according to client preference.

Fire Alarm System Interfaces

An automatic fire detection and alarm system is able to be connected such that systems throughout the building perform an action (such as equipment response, doors unlocking etc.,) in the event of a confirmed fire. To prevent unforeseen downtime, data centers are required to keep functioning as much as practicable in the event of a fire. Therefore, where equipment which provides cooling or power supply to the server racks would typically turn off in the event of a fire in a typical building, these are required to keep running in a data center. A typical response is “running to failure” meaning the data centre systems are designed to remain operational unless system failure has occurred or systems have been manually overridden.

Data centers often have exceptionally high security requirements. In a typical building activation of the fire alarm could be designed to unlock any secure doors such that they do not impede means of escape from the building. However, in a data center this action could present a security breach to the building (i.e., the building becoming accessible). The interface of access controls along means of escape routes requires consideration and consultation with the security consultant, implementing delayed unlocking or other mechanisms safeguarding the building’s security.

Fire Compartmentation

Clients often require more robust internal fire resisting separation to provide a greater degree of protection for all critical areas such as the data halls and cooling equipment rooms, to prevent more than a single-loss event during a fire. This may be achieved through additional compartmentation around or between plant equipment, to mitigate the risk of fire spread from one piece of equipment to another. Compartmentation is also frequently applied between designated operational sections, such as individual data halls or power streams to limit maximum loss or outage.

Construction Materials

Data center clients often stipulate more onerous fire performance requirements than the Building Regulations, requiring FM Approved or UL tested materials which are non-combustible or of limited combustibility. Items such as cable trays, partitions, containment systems, and roof structures where plant or PV arrays are present are often governed by these requirements.

Crucially, Client and Insurer requirements for the fire protection of data centers must be considered alongside the life-safety requirements of the Building Regulations from an early stage, ensuring a robust fire strategy which also mitigates the risk of business disruption produced for the data center.

Our Expertise

When working on fire strategies for data centers, it is essential that Joule Group recognise each project as being unique while involving key stakeholders such as the building control body, fire service authority, security consultant and insurers, as early as possible. As a result of this emphasis on constructive collaboration, we pride ourselves in our track record of positive stakeholder engagement which our clients continue to benefit from.

Get in Touch

To learn more about how Joule Group's fire safety expertise could help you better protect your data center project, please get in touch with us at info@joule-group.com.

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