Fire Eater interview: Data-centres should rethink environmental cost of fire suppression

Fire Eater interview: Data-centres should rethink environmental cost of fire suppression is profiled by BTW Media because published evidence links it to internet infrastructure, governance, operational dependencies, or market visibility.

• Fire Eater says many data centres still use chemical-based suppression systems with long-term environmental impacts.
• The company argues that misunderstanding and lack of education remain major barriers to safer, greener fire-protection adoption.

Fire Eater warns of rising environmental risks in data-centre fire protection

Speaking during an interview at ITW Asia, Gavin Young, Global Business Development Manager at the Denmark-based fire-suppression manufacturer Fire Eater, highlighted growing concerns around the environmental footprint of technologies used within modern data-centre fire-protection systems.

Young said that although data centres remain among the world’s most energy-intensive and resource-dependent facilities, the industry pays far less attention to the environmental cost of the fire-suppression agents installed inside these sites.

“There are a lot of chemicals going into data centres which have an impact on our environment,” he noted. Young argued that if he could change one thing about today’s market, it would be awareness: operators, designers, and even some regulators are still not fully informed about how fire-protection choices affect both safety outcomes and environmental sustainability.

Fire Eater, which manufactures ignition-based fire-suppression systems, says it sees a recurring pattern across the region: businesses often purchase systems based on legacy standards or vendor familiarity, rather than after a detailed evaluation of environmental effects, lifecycle emissions or end-of-life disposal needs.

Young added that education remains the single biggest challenge. “One of the biggest challenges is educating people on fire protection and what they need for their data centre,” he said. He suggested that many operators assume all suppression systems are equal — an assumption that often leads to overspending, over-engineering, or installing solutions that do not align with current sustainability expectations.

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Why it’s important

As Asia’s digital-infrastructure footprint expands, fire-suppression systems are becoming a significant — yet frequently overlooked — component of data-centre sustainability. While power usage effectiveness (PUE) and renewable-energy procurement dominate discussions about green data centres, the chemicals used in fire-suppression systems can also carry substantial environmental risks.

Industry specialists have warned that some commonly used agents, including certain synthetic chemicals, can contribute to long atmospheric lifetimes or require complex disposal processes. Young’s remarks reflect a broader debate within the infrastructure community: should environmental accountability extend beyond power consumption and cooling efficiency to include long-term safety systems?

The challenge, however, is that the sector currently lacks unified standards or a consistent regulatory framework across Asia. Without clear regional policies, operators often default to familiar technologies — even when greener or more modern alternatives are available.

Young’s comments suggest that the industry may be approaching a crossroads. As sustainability reporting requirements tighten and customer expectations evolve, data-centre operators may soon face pressure to assess not only how efficiently their facilities run, but also how every support system — including fire suppression — affects the environment. Whether the sector will embrace this wider view remains uncertain.