Hochiki Explores Fire and Water Risk in Data Centres at RISCAuthority Seminar

Martin Green, Commercial Training and Support Manager at Hochiki Europe, spoke at the RISCAuthority London Seminar 2026 on 22nd September. The event, organised by the Fire Protection Association (FPA), brought together Insurance and risk management professionals at Chicago Booth’s London Conference Centre.

With the expansion of data centres across the UK and Europe, Martin talked about the rise in water leak incidents as well alongside fire, and solutions to support early detection. Rather than reactive, claim-based pricing, Martin stated the case for resilience-based underwriting to reduce the impact of fire or water-related instances. 

‘Data centres are growing faster than the claims data insurers would normally use to price them. Fire and water can’t be looked at separately in these buildings, because water getting into electrical systems can itself start a fire. Early detection of both gives underwriters and risk engineers something measurable to assess.’

Commented Martin Green.

Additionally, spotlight was put on aspirating smoke detection as a scalable solution to larger applications, such as data halls, as air is continuously sampled across vast spaces for early warning of a fire outbreak.

A joint Q&A was held at the end of the seminar with other leaders in the industry discussing the risks associated with solar PV systems. Martin explained that linear heat detection can pick up building heat at panel connectors where a connector fault could be present, minimising the damage caused by a fire through early detection.

Martin Green reflected on the event:

‘The questions from the room showed how much interest there is in practical detection from data halls to rooftop solar. We’re grateful to the RISCAuthority and the FPA for the invitation and we look forward to continuing those conversations.’

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