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Hochiki Europe’s Martin Green explores fire and water risk in data centres at RISCAuthority London Seminar

Hochiki Europe joins insurers, fire services and risk professionals to discuss emerging risks in the built environment

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

The invitation followed an article on protecting data centres from fire that Martin wrote for the FPA Journal earlier this year.

Martin’s talk looked at how the risk profile of data centres is changing as the sector grows across the UK and Europe and why water is emerging as a key exposure alongside fire. He made the case for moving from reactive, claims-based pricing towards resilience-based underwriting, supported by early detection of both fire and water.

Other sessions included a building safety update from FPA Chief Executive Dr Gavin Dunn and a talk on wildfire risk from Jon Charters of Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service. An expert panel also looked at the growing use of solar PV systems and the associated fire risks.

In the joint Q&A that followed, delegates asked about early detection of fires on solar panel installations. Martin explained that the fire risk on these systems often sits at the panel connectors. Linear heat detection can pick up heat building at those points before a connector fault develops into a fire.

Discussions on the day also covered aspirating smoke detection as a good option for data halls, because it samples air continuously across large spaces and can pick up smoke at a very early stage. Water leak detection came up in many of Martin’s conversations, particularly how it can scale across larger buildings.

Martin Green said: “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.”

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

Martin has worked in the fire industry since 1993. He writes regularly for trade titles including International Fire and Safety Journal and the FPA Journal and speaks regularly at The Fire Safety Event.

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