Preventing the Next Digital Meltdown
A lithium-ion battery explosion at South Korea’s national data center disabled hundreds of government systems. Learn how a next-generation fire suppression system can prevent thermal runaway and reduce property and operational loss in critical digital infrastructure.
Introduction: When One Battery Fire Became a National Crisis
On September 26, 2025, South Korea experienced what media outlets have called a “Digital Pearl Harbor.” A lithium-ion battery explosion at a national data center in Daejeon crippled hundreds of government systems, disrupting digital identity verification, online document signing, and even emergency services for over 24 hours.
(Source: ESS News, Sept. 30, 2025)
“As digital infrastructure becomes more centralized, physical fire protection must evolve as fast as cybersecurity.
The event highlights a sobering truth: digital resilience begins with physical protection.
The Incident: How One Aging Battery Triggered a National Outage
Investigation results indicate that the fire originated during maintenance on an aged UPS battery module — manufactured in 2014.
A single-cell failure initiated thermal runaway, rapidly propagating through adjacent modules.
The results were devastating:
🔥 384 battery modules destroyed
⚙️ 96 systems physically damaged
🖥️ 647 government platforms taken offline
📉 Nationwide disruption of digital authentication and postal services
Firefighting was complicated by the setting. Water could cool the blaze but risked catastrophic electrical damage; CO₂ and inert gas systems lacked sufficient cooling power. The response required hours of alternating suppression, resulting in significant secondary property damage and extended service interruption.
The Broader Risk: Centralization Meets Fire Vulnerability
While centralizing IT and energy systems increases efficiency, it also amplifies single-point vulnerabilities. In the Daejeon case, one localized battery event cascaded across entire networks and services.
Key lessons learned:
- Thermal runaway is fast and self-propagating. Without early containment, cell temperatures can exceed 1,000 °C.
- Conventional suppression is a trade-off. Water cools but destroys; gases preserve hardware but cannot stop exothermic reactions.
- Aging battery modules magnify risk. Degraded chemistries and outdated BMS configurations increase failure likelihood.
- Centralized design compounds impact. A single battery fault can cripple entire nations when systems share power and compute backbones.
- Centralized design compounds impact. A single battery fault can cripple entire nations when systems share power and compute backbones.
Why Traditional Suppression Falls Short
Conventional protection systems, like water mist, inert gases, or fluorinated foams, struggle against lithium-ion thermal runaway:
| Method | Benefit | Limitation |
| Inert Gas (CO₂, N₂) | Oxygen displacement | No cooling effect; does not stop thermal propagation |
| Water or Mist | Effective cooling | High risk of electrical, corrosion, and data damage |
| Legacy AFFF Foams | Forms heat barrier | Non-insulating, electrically conductive, and contains PFAS compounds under global environmental restrictions |
Modern data centers require a solution that delivers fast, localized containment without destructive flooding, and one that aligns with global environmental mandates.
Our Solution: Localized Foam Barrier with PFAS-Free LBF Agent
Our proprietary system was engineered specifically for battery-dense environments, such as data centers, UPS rooms, and battery energy storage facilities.
🔹 1. Targeted Containment of Thermal Runaway
A regular foam matrix deploys directly around affected cells or modules, forming a heat-insulating barrier that suppresses propagation.
The embedded LBF agent actively absorbs heat and neutralizes reactive intermediates before thermal runaway can spread.
🔹 2. PFAS-Free, Sustainable Chemistry
Our agent achieves high suppression performance without fluorinated compounds, meeting and exceeding global PFAS phase-out standards (EU, EPA, and OECD).
🔹 3. Minimal Water, Maximum Protection
Localized deployment requires only a fraction of the water used in conventional systems - reducing electrical damage, corrosion, and post-incident cleanup.
🔹 4. Seamless Integration for Critical Facilities
The system is engineered for rack-level and container-structured installations, activating upon early-stage temperature or voltage anomalies. This allows autonomous isolation of the affected cell group within seconds.
A Controlled Response Beats a Catastrophic Reaction
If a system like ours had been installed at the Daejeon data center, the initial cell failure could have been contained before propagation, eliminating the need to flood the facility and preventing widespread service loss.
Instead of a nationwide outage, the incident might have remained a contained technical anomaly with rapid recovery and limited damage.
“Intelligent containment transforms a catastrophic fire into a manageable maintenance event.”
Building True Digital Resilience
The Daejeon event is not an exception. It’s a warning.
As data centers, utilities, and government agencies deploy larger lithium-ion battery storage systems, thermal management and fire suppression must evolve alongside.
Our PFAS-Free LB System Provides:
- Localized fire suppression system for lithium-ion battery fires
- Thermal runaway propagation prevention (TRPP)
- Protection of high-value electronics and structures
- Environmentally compliant, sustainable formulation
- Faster recovery and reduced downtime
Conclusion: Designing Infrastructure That Can Survive Its Own Energy
Cyber resilience and digital redundancy are no longer enough. Physical resilience, especially in energy storage and data environments, is now a defining factor of operational continuity.
Let’s build infrastructures that can survive their own energy.
👉 Contact our technical team to learn how our PFAS-free LBF fire extinguishing solution can be integrated into your facility’s fire protection and energy resilience plan.