When plans emerged for one of the world's largest proposed data center developments in Utah, concerns quickly centered on its environmental impact, with researchers warning the project could alter local temperatures.

Originally intended to cover 40,000 acres – almost three times the size of Manhattan – the development has now been scaled back after developers agreed to halve its size.

Yet as hyperscale data centers continue to expand to support AI growth, another issue deserves equal attention: fire safety. The industry's growing reliance on lithium-ion battery systems is transforming how facilities maintain uptime and resilience. However, it is also introducing new hazards that many projects are still struggling to address, particularly during construction.

In this landscape, proactive fire prevention is becoming as critical to project success as power availability itself. In recent years, lithium-ion batteries have been linked to fires in consumer products such as e-bikes and mobile phones, and although data centers have traditionally been viewed as low-fire-risk environments, battery storage systems are increasingly challenging that assumption.

A new category of fire risk

Despite the risks, lithium-ion batteries play a critical role in modern uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, providing essential backup power during outages. They are also widely used to power tools and temporary site operations during construction phases.

Among the unique hazards they present, the primary concern is thermal runaway, a chain reaction that can occur when a battery cell becomes damaged, overheated, or defective. Once initiated, it can spread rapidly between cells, producing intense heat, flammable gases, and fires that are extremely difficult to suppress.

Over the past few years, incidents involving data centers and lithium-ion battery systems have demonstrated that traditional fire protection approaches are not always sufficient. In September 2024, a lithium-ion battery fire in a Singapore data center caused major damage, affecting two battery and two power supply rooms. Firefighters worked for 36 hours to contain it.

More recently, a blaze was triggered by a reported battery explosion at a South Korean data center last September. It halted more than 600 online government services, including tax, postal, and mobile ID systems. Nearly 200 firefighters took ten hours to bring the fire under control.

Closer to home, lithium-ion batteries have also been implicated in a series of incidents. They were blamed for two fires at a Virginia facility last September, while a thermal runaway incident at a Microsoft data campus in Goodyear, Arizona caused a small explosion within a battery room a few years ago.

Compliance is not enough

Fire safety standards continue to evolve in response to emerging battery technologies. Guidance in the US, such as the National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA 855, has helped establish expectations around energy storage systems and hazard mitigation strategies.

NFPA 855 is a consensus standard that provides minimum safety requirements for the design, installation and operation of stationary energy storage systems. It covers technologies such as lithium-ion battery systems and sets out criteria for siting, fire protection, ventilation and emergency response to reduce the risk of fire and limit its impact.

The NFPA is also preparing to publish a new Battery Safety Code (NFPA 800), which will be the first full lifecycle standard for battery safety, covering manufacturing, transport, installation, operation, emergency response and end-of-life management.

Expected to be released on a provisional basis shortly, the code has been developed through an accelerated process in response to the rapid growth of lithium-ion technologies across construction, energy and industrial sectors.

Yet implementation of the NFPA’s codes remains inconsistent. Interpretation often varies between jurisdictions, project teams and authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs). In practice, many projects focus on achieving minimum compliance rather than developing comprehensive fire prevention strategies – especially during the construction phase, when safety requirements are often interpreted more flexibly.

The result is a significant gap between the risks present on site and the measures deployed to manage them. For lithium-ion battery systems in particular, compliance should be viewed as a starting point rather than a finish line.

Technology enables earlier intervention

This risk is compounded by the way large data center campuses are built and operated. In many cases, significant parts of a site are brought online while other sections are still under construction, meaning live infrastructure and active building works coexist in the same environment and increase overall exposure.

Ultimately, the best fire safety outcome is preventing a fire from occurring in the first place, rather than responding once it has already started. Traditional measures such as temporary fire watches, air horns, or minimum code compliance are increasingly misaligned with the complexity and value of modern data center builds.

As a result, shifts in fire protection strategy are emerging, with project teams reducing reliance on gaseous suppression systems, while continuing to use pre-action sprinkler systems and showing growing interest in water mist solutions for high-density environments.

Wireless fire detection systems are also increasingly enabling project teams to identify hazards at a much earlier stage. By removing the constraints of hardwired infrastructure, these systems can be deployed more flexibly across complex or rapidly changing sites, maintaining continuous coverage as works progress.

Real-time monitoring, automated alerts and auditable response data provide a level of visibility that traditional fire watches and manual inspections often struggle to match. This improves not only speed of response but also accountability, allowing teams to track how risks are identified and managed over time.

Early detection becomes even more critical when lithium-ion batteries are involved. Once thermal runaway begins, intervention options become significantly more limited and the potential for rapid fire escalation increases. Identifying abnormal conditions before ignition offers the best opportunity to prevent escalation and protect both people and high-value assets.

Protecting business continuity

Fire prevention is not only a life safety issue for data center owners but also a critical factor in business continuity and operational resilience. A major fire during construction can delay delivery, damage infrastructure and disrupt long-term operational plans. For facilities supporting AI workloads and cloud services, the resulting downtime and recovery costs can be significant.

Incidents can also lead to extended commissioning delays, insurance complications and redesign work, particularly where battery systems or high-voltage infrastructure are involved. The impact often extends beyond the site itself, affecting wider service networks dependent on new capacity coming online.

As data centers grow in scale, complexity and power density, the consequences of a single incident increase. Higher energy loads and denser configurations create a more concentrated risk environment throughout construction and operation.

Developers and project teams therefore face a choice between treating fire protection as a compliance requirement or integrating it as a core design consideration from the outset. The latter better reflects the realities of modern digital infrastructure delivery. With lithium-ion adoption continuing to accelerate, fire prevention strategies will need to evolve in step to protect both future data center assets and those building them.