Fire Protection Design Requirements: DataBank Red Oak Campus, Red Oak, TX

Meta Description: Fire protection design for DataBank's 480MW hyperscale campus in Red Oak, TX—NFPA editions, pre-action sprinklers, suppression, and alarm coordination.

Section 1: Project Overview

DataBank's Red Oak Campus is a hyperscale colocation development on 292 acres in Red Oak, Texas, approximately 21 miles south of Dallas in Ellis County. Announced in September 2024, construction is underway on what will ultimately be eight two-story data center buildings, each approximately 425,000 gross square feet, for a total of 3.4 million square feet. Phase 1 includes four buildings served by a 400 MW Oncor substation delivering up to 240 MW of critical IT power; Phase 2 will expand campus capacity to 480 MW across all eight buildings. DataBank secured $2 billion in construction financing for the first three Phase 1 buildings in April 2026, with an initial Ready for Service date of Q2 2026.

The campus is built around DataBank's Universal Data Hall Design, a flexible configuration that can serve enterprise, hyperscale public cloud, and high-performance computing tenants—including AI training and inference workloads that require power densities well above the traditional 10–15 kW-per-rack colocation baseline. Red Oak has developed into a significant data center submarket within the Dallas metro, placing this project within a jurisdiction where AHJ familiarity with large-scale data center permitting is established.

Section 2: Fire Protection Challenges Specific to This Project

A campus of this configuration presents several fire protection design challenges that do not arise at smaller enterprise or edge facilities.

The most significant challenge is load variability across a single building's data halls. "DataBank's Universal Data Hall Design is intended to flex between different tenant types—meaning the same pre-action sprinkler system and detection layout must remain code-compliant whether a data hall is operating at 5 kW per rack for an enterprise tenant or approaching 50–100 kW per rack for an AI compute pod." Designers should document the range of intended use and confirm with the Red Oak AHJ that the fire protection system design accounts for the full spectrum of anticipated loads.

Battery energy storage requires early design resolution. Large UPS systems at this scale may use VRLA, nickel-cadmium, or lithium-ion battery assemblies. Lithium-ion batteries present a thermal runaway hazard addressed in NFPA 855, Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage Systems. The suppression and ventilation strategy for UPS battery rooms must be finalized before the permit set is issued, as NFPA 855 carries AHJ interpretation variability and may require a separate fire protection narrative.

The generator infrastructure supporting 240–480 MW of critical power requires diesel generator farms with substantial on-site fuel. Generator exhaust, day-tank supply lines, and bulk fuel storage fall under NFPA 30 and IFC Chapter 57. Separation distances, secondary containment, and suppression thresholds depend on total fuel quantities—at this scale, those quantities will likely trigger the more stringent code provisions.

Coordinating fire protection across four buildings in simultaneous phased construction—while maintaining operational continuity for buildings that come online earlier—requires clear interim fire protection plans and AHJ-accepted phasing documentation.

Section 3: Required Systems and Applicable Codes

The following codes and standards apply to this project under the jurisdiction of the City of Red Oak and the State of Texas. Designers should confirm with the Red Oak Building Department whether any local amendments supersede state-level adoptions prior to commencing design.

Pre-action sprinkler systems are standard for occupied server halls. At hyperscale density, double-interlock pre-action systems—requiring both detector activation and a sprinkler head operation before water discharges—are the common choice for IT equipment areas. "NFPA 13 (2019) governs pre-action valve assembly requirements; sprinkler selection must account for the storage commodity classification that applies to high-density server equipment per NFPA 13's rack storage provisions."

Section 4: What Designers Need to Think Through

Pre-action system supervisory medium is a decision worth raising with DataBank early. Some AHJs and insurers prefer nitrogen over air for supervisory pressure in data hall piping—nitrogen reduces internal oxygen and slows corrosion in long horizontal runs typical of raised-floor configurations. NFPA 13 (2019) does not mandate nitrogen, but the design documentation should specify supervisory pressure setpoints and define the alarm/supervisory threshold sequencing in the sequence of operations submitted with the fire alarm permit.

Early warning smoke detection is not mandated by NFPA 72 (2019) for general data center occupancies, but at hyperscale density the practical threshold for damage is well below what a standard listed spot detector responds to. Air-sampling smoke detection in server halls, UPS rooms, and electrical switchgear rooms is the established approach for facilities at this tier. It should be included in the initial design scope, not treated as an owner-option add-on, because the wiring interfaces with the pre-action system and the alarm panel programming are substantially different once pre-action release is tied to an aspirating detection system rather than a conventional spot detector.

For high-density electrical rooms housing switchgear, bus duct assemblies, and PDU banks serving hundreds of megawatts, the suppression strategy requires separate review from the general building sprinkler system. Arc flash in bus ducts and transformer vaults is a hazard scenario that standard sprinkler coverage alone may not adequately address; the AHJ may require a dedicated suppression narrative for these spaces.

Section 5: How ProTech CDS Approaches Projects Like This

ProTech CDS produces fire protection permit packages for hyperscale data centers and large-scale colocation facilities across multiple states. Our design process starts with a code analysis memo establishing the AHJ-adopted editions of every applicable NFPA standard before a drawing is issued. For a project in Red Oak, that means direct contact with the city building department and the Texas State Fire Marshal's Office to confirm adopted editions and local amendments—because proceeding on state-level default editions without that confirmation is how a permit package gets rejected on the first review cycle.

NICET IV review and PE seals are available in all 50 states when the AHJ requires them. We deliver white-label drawings, which means your team's name goes on the cover sheet and the GC submits directly without involving a second engineering firm in your project workflow. To discuss design and permitting services for your data center project, visit lockin.protechcds.com.

Section 6: Call to Action

Data center fire protection involves more code-specific decisions at the design stage than most occupancy types. If you have a hyperscale or enterprise colocation project requiring permit-ready fire protection drawings, ProTech CDS is ready to support your team. Submit a project inquiry at lockin.protechcds.com.