Faliure of electronic equipments, short circuit etc can be the reason for fire and from the protection point of view Data Center should have some of the common strategies for fire protection include proper alarms and detection.
If fires occurs the next steps is rapid detection.There are number of advanced detector that scene fire in its early stage and then alert personnel and activate suppression system.
Also, I will prefer customised smoke detectors and sprinklers, small area of fire can cause all the system to go havoc, damaging other system with no need.
We both use smoke detectors and fire sprinkler systems. It is essential that the correct type of protection service be installed in the correct environment.
kindly find bellow some notes should you take them into consideration when you design fire protection system for data center.
1- optical smoke detector used above and below false ceiling is good but it will be better if you can use "laser detection" type.
data center and telecoms room are contain active and sensitive equipments so it will be more protect when you use laser detector.
2-The minimum ceiling height in the data center shall be 2.6 m (8.5 ft) from the finished floor to any obstruction such as sprinklers. A minimum of 460 mm
(18 in) clearance shall be maintained from water sprinkler heads.
3-Coordinate placement of equipment and sprinklers in the data centers so that tall cabinets or overhead cable trays do not block water dispersal from the sprinklers.
I advice to read TIA942 standard pages :108-109, there are some guidelines about fire protection system(water suppression,pre-action suppression..) for data center.
It is important to protect datacenters which contains equipments and data worth millions from catching fire.
Fire protection is very much essentioal for datacenters as charge leakage can happen. Datacenters should be handy with fire sprinklers, alarms and suppression systems.
You need to have ideal equipment for detecting fires. Obviously, you want to detect smoke before a full fledged fire breaks out. You can have alarms that will react even before there is smoke. These are heat censored systems that will set off an alarm when equipment reaches an elevated temperature. You need to have sprinkler systems throughout the building.
You also want to ensure that your equipment is well maintained and meets all safety standards to reduce the risk of fire.