Fire safety technology is a strategic investment that helps businesses cut risk, protect operations and occupants, and scale competitively.
By Dr. Rodger Reiswig, Vice President, Industry Relations, Fire Detection, Johnson Controls
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) estimates that U.S. industrial and manufacturing properties experience over 36,000 fires annually, causing almost $1 billion USD in property damage – not to mention injuries caused to personnel. These numbers underscore a critical truth: fire safety can no longer be just a compliance checkbox. Fire safety must be recognized for its role in business success and treated as the tactical decision and business strategy that it is.
This is especially true as companies invest billions of dollars in data centers and relocate manufacturing facilities to areas that promise physical and financial growth. Integrating advanced fire detection early into site selection and facility design helps organizations mitigate risk while positioning themselves to scale in an increasingly competitive environment. When approached proactively, embedding fire protection into long-term planning becomes a catalyst for stronger operational resilience, overall enterprise value, and serves as a safeguard for assets and people.
In 2024, 96 corporate headquarters relocated within the U.S., led by manufacturing and tech firms, with both industries seeing 28 relocations each. These facilities often support mission-critical operations and advanced technologies that demand high levels of reliability and continuity. As organizations relocate to support continued business growth, fire detection solutions can help support the long-term goals of these organizations. Decision makers need to incorporate fire safety early in – and even prior to – site selection to help ensure these facilities are to maintain uptime, protect capital investments, and operate as intended over the long term.
In doing so, companies can avoid costly retrofits, accelerate approvals, and reduce long-term operational risk, ensuring fire detection planning is aligned with broader location and investment decisions from the start. In order to accomplish this, designers and site selection teams must evaluate local fire codes, emergency response capacity, and insurance implications early and consider how fire detection systems can mitigate potential challenges in building construction. Doing so allows organizations to factor fire detection and life safety strategies into planning decisions, ensuring they support operational continuity and competitiveness before breaking ground.
With the rise in artificial intelligence, technology companies are capitalizing on the demand, investing in local communities, and leading an economic revolution by spending more than ever on data centers. In fact, global spending on data centers is projected to reach $7 trillion by 2030, with hyperscale projects costing up to $2 billion each. These facilities are engineered for reliability, but their scale and technical complexity make resilience planning critical.
Data centers have high-capacity electrical infrastructure, energy storage systems, and dense IT environments designed for performance. Advanced detection technologies, such as aspirating smoke detection and integrated sensors, support these environments by providing early indication of potential fire events. This early awareness enables a quick and targeted response, helping to protect critical infrastructure and avoid disruptions. These fire detection systems are most effective when incorporated into the design of a facility – not as an afterthought.
Modern facilities are increasingly designed with safety and operational efficiency in mind. Protecting personnel, infrastructure, IT environments, and business operations are all factored in from day one. Robust fire detection systems play a large role in supporting these priorities by ensuring safe working environments and protecting the systems that employees rely on to do their jobs.
When an organization establishes a new facility, they integrate themselves into a community. Throughout planning, construction, and day-to-day operations, facility managers and company executives should make an effort to partner closely with local fire departments to run drills, conduct joint training exercises, and share detection system data to improve overall response coordination and reduce potential delays. One facility in New York, for example, reduced emergency response times with first responders to 5 minutes after implementing new fire and life safety systems, demonstrating how strategic planning can strengthen operational readiness and community partnerships.
In an era defined by rapid expansion, digital transformation, and heightened stakeholder scrutiny, long term planning and resilience is no longer optional; rather it is a competitive differentiator. Organizations should be taking every advantage they can get, and that means treating fire detection not as an afterthought but as the tactical strategy it is. This helps better equip leaders to safeguard performance, protect reputation, and sustain long-term growth.
Executives can lead the charge of designing and building new facilities by ensuring integrated and advanced fire detection technologies are top of their list of investments. Fire safety is a strategic business initiative, and those who make fire detection solutions a key part of their strategy can gain an edge in an increasingly competitive market and be more prepared to scale for growth. This starts with prioritizing advanced fire detection early in the development process, from the site selection and facility design stage. This allows organizations to mitigate risk, protect their property and personnel, and position themselves to remain competitive long term.
About the Author:
Dr. Rodger Reiswig is a Fellow and the Vice President of Industry Relations, Global Fire Products at Johnson Controls. He has been in the fire protection and life safety industry for over 35 years. He represents Johnson Controls worldwide as a leader in building codes and standards and on global codes and standards bodies. He currently serves on the NFPA Standards Council and is a trustee of the NFPA Fire Protection Research Foundation. He is also chair of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) Signaling Section, BS-SB, the Electronic Security Association’s (ESA) Codes and Standards Committee, and a member of the NEMA Codes and Standards Committee. Additionally, He is a NICET Level IV-certified expert in Fire Alarm Systems.
Read more from the author:
Back to Basics: The Importance of Fire Detection in Commercial Facilities | Facilities Management Advisor, December 2025
NFPA 72 2025 Updates: What You Need To Know | TheBigRedGuide.com
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