Fire Safety for Defence and Security Start-Ups: Why Fast Growth Creates Serious Risk
There is a great deal of justified excitement about the growth of defence and security technology in the UK. The war in Ukraine accelerated investment in drone manufacturing, electronic warfare systems, communications hardware and autonomous platforms. Government procurement has followed, and a significant number of start-ups and scale-ups, many of them based in the North West, have moved into premises that were never designed for the kind of work now being done inside them.
The fire safety implications of that shift are substantial, and they are not always well understood by founders and operations teams whose primary focus is on product development and winning contracts. This article sets out the specific fire risks that defence and security start-ups need to understand, and the legal obligations that apply regardless of how commercially sensitive the work might be.
The Legal Framework Does Not Change Because the Work Is Classified
Every employer or person in control of non-domestic premises in England and Wales is a responsible person under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. That obligation applies to a drone assembly workshop in Warrington just as it applies to a solicitors' office in Chester. The nature of the work, or the sensitivity of the contracts, does not alter the requirement to carry out and record a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment, to implement appropriate fire precautions, and to train staff in fire safety procedures.
For companies that have grown quickly, particularly those that moved into their first proper premises after a period of working from co-working spaces or university labs, the fire safety infrastructure of the building will almost certainly not have kept pace with the operational reality inside it. That gap between what the building was assessed for and what is actually happening within it is where serious risk tends to accumulate.
Key obligation: Under Article 9 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, a fire risk assessment must be reviewed whenever there is reason to believe it may no longer be valid, including after changes in the nature of the work, the materials used, the number of staff, or the layout of the premises. Since October 2023, Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 requires the full assessment to be recorded in writing.
Lithium-Ion Batteries: The Most Underestimated Risk in the Sector
Most defence and security start-ups working on drone platforms or autonomous systems will be handling lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries as a matter of course. These are the energy-dense, lightweight power sources that make modern drone technology viable, and they present a fire risk profile that is genuinely different from most other materials found in commercial premises.
The danger is not simply that lithium-ion batteries can catch fire. It is that when they do, they can undergo thermal runaway, a self-sustaining exothermic reaction that generates its own oxygen and makes the fire extremely difficult to suppress using conventional extinguishers. Thermal runaway can be triggered by overcharging, physical damage, manufacturing defects, or prolonged storage in elevated temperatures, and it can escalate faster than most occupants would anticipate. Where batteries are stored in bulk, or charged in clusters overnight, the risk is compounded.
Video: Lithium-Ion Battery Thermal Runaway
This footage illustrates the speed and intensity with which lithium-ion batteries can enter thermal runaway. The behaviour shown is directly relevant to any premises where batteries are charged, stored or assembled.
For drone developers and electronics manufacturers, the practical fire safety implications are significant. Charging areas need to be positioned away from escape routes and other combustible materials, with consideration given to appropriate containment such as fire-rated charging cabinets or battery storage lockers. Detection systems need to be appropriate for the risk, since a standard smoke detector may not provide adequate early warning for a lithium-ion fire, which can produce gases before visible smoke is apparent. Staff need to be trained not just in what to do if a fire starts, but in how to recognise the signs of a battery beginning to fail before ignition occurs.
None of this is unmanageable, but it requires a fire risk assessment carried out by someone who understands the specific characteristics of lithium-ion fire behaviour rather than applying a standard commercial premises template to a workshop where batteries are charged in racks every night.
Practical point: Lithium-ion batteries that have been physically damaged in testing, dropped, or returned from field trials should never be charged or stored alongside undamaged stock without inspection. A compromised cell can enter thermal runaway during charging without any visible external warning.
Arson Risk: Protest, State Actors, and the Threat Picture for Defence Companies
Defence and security companies face a threat picture that is qualitatively different from general commercial premises. Two categories of arson risk deserve specific attention.
The first is ideologically motivated attack. UK-based defence companies, particularly those involved in drone manufacture, weapons systems, or contracts with foreign governments, have attracted attention from protest groups whose tactics have escalated in recent years. Property damage, including fire, has been used as a form of direct action against defence infrastructure in several European countries, and UK sites are not immune. The relevant threat is not confined to large primes: a small start-up whose technology feeds into the supply chain for contested military applications can become a target on that basis alone. The general principles of arson risk reduction apply, but they need to be calibrated to a higher baseline threat level than a typical commercial premises assessment would assume.
The second category is state-directed action. Russian intelligence services and their proxies have been credibly linked to a series of arson and sabotage attacks on defence-related infrastructure across Europe, some of them in the UK. These attacks are generally aimed at disruption rather than destruction, but the fire risk is real, and the range of tactics employed, from simple incendiary devices to more sophisticated methods, means that a purely physical security approach is insufficient without fire safety measures designed to contain and detect a fire that is deliberately started rather than accidentally caused.
Video: Russian State Arson Threat to European Infrastructure
This reporting covers the pattern of suspected Russian state-linked sabotage and arson activity targeting European infrastructure, including sites with defence relevance. The threat is not theoretical.
For responsible persons at defence and security start-ups, the implication is that fire safety and physical security planning need to be considered together rather than in separate silos. A fire detection system that provides early warning of a deliberately ignited fire, combined with compartmentation that limits the spread of a fire started at the perimeter of the premises, is a different specification from what a generic office or light-industrial assessment would recommend. The question of where sensitive materials and IP are stored relative to the most accessible entry points is also relevant to the fire safety plan, not just the security plan.
Growing Headcount and the Training Gap
Defence and security start-ups tend to hire quickly, particularly once they have secured a contract or a funding round. A company that had five people in a co-working space eighteen months ago may now have forty in a converted industrial unit, with more arriving each month. That growth creates a structural training gap that is very easy to overlook when engineering deadlines and contract deliverables dominate the leadership agenda.
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, every employer must provide their employees with adequate fire safety information and training. That training must be appropriate to the specific premises and the specific risks present, and it must be renewed when anything significant changes. A generic e-learning module completed at induction does not satisfy the requirement for a workforce that is handling high-energy batteries, working with flammable adhesives and solvents, or operating in a premises where the layout has changed since the previous training cycle.
The practical minimum for a growing defence technology company should include induction fire safety training for all new staff covering the specific risks of the premises they are entering, evacuation procedures drilled regularly enough that the routes and assembly points are genuinely understood rather than theoretically known, training for fire marshals that is refreshed as the physical layout of the site evolves, and clear communication to subcontractors, visiting engineers and temporary staff who may be on site for extended periods but who are not part of the permanent induction process.
Our fire safety training is designed to be delivered at the premises and calibrated to the actual risks present, rather than drawing on generic materials that were written for a different type of building. For companies handling lithium-ion batteries or operating in a higher-threat environment, that specificity matters.
Worth noting: Article 21 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order requires that fire safety training takes place during working hours and that it is repeated periodically and adapted to take account of any new or changed risks. A training record that dates from the company's first year in its current premises, and has not been refreshed since, is unlikely to satisfy an enforcement officer's scrutiny.
Fire Risk Assessments That Have Not Kept Pace With the Business
Perhaps the single most common fire safety failure we encounter in fast-growing companies is a fire risk assessment that was carried out when the business moved into its premises and has not been substantively reviewed since. For a defence start-up that has grown rapidly, that assessment will almost certainly not reflect current reality.
The factors that typically change as a defence technology company scales include the following.
- Occupancy levels More people in the building means different evacuation times, greater demand on escape routes, and a need to revisit the adequacy of detection, alarm and signage. An assessment written for a team of eight does not translate automatically to a workforce of forty.
- Materials and processes As product development progresses, the range of materials on site typically increases. Adhesives, resins, solvents, propellants and energetic materials that were not present at the time of the original assessment may now be in regular use. Each changes the fire behaviour of the building and the requirements for detection, suppression and compartmentation.
- Layout and use of space Storage areas expand. Assembly areas are repurposed. Corridors that were clear at the time of the last assessment may now be used for charging racks or component storage. Incremental changes of this kind often carry more risk than a single formal decision to change the building's function, because they accumulate quietly and no single step triggers a formal review.
- Subcontractors and visitors As the business grows, the population of the building increasingly includes people who were not inducted into its fire safety arrangements, from visiting engineers and supplier representatives to government officials and investors. Those people are owed the same duty of care as permanent employees, and they need to be factored into the evacuation plan.
- Physical security measures and their interaction with escape Defence premises often introduce access control, mantrap entries, and perimeter security measures as the business scales and security requirements harden. These measures can conflict with the requirement for unobstructed escape routes if they are not planned carefully. A door that requires a security clearance to open is not a compliant fire exit.
Reviewing the fire risk assessment when the business has grown is not an administrative box-ticking exercise. It is the mechanism by which the responsible person regains an accurate picture of how a fire would actually develop in the current building, and what the people inside it would need to do to get out safely.
Documentation and the Building Safety Act
Since October 2023, the requirement to maintain comprehensive written fire safety records has been significantly strengthened by Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022. Every responsible person must now record their fire risk assessment in full, regardless of the size of the business or the number of employees. The name of the assessor or assessing organisation must be recorded. Records of fire safety maintenance, testing and drills must be kept and be available to enforcing authorities on request.
For a defence or security company operating under government contracts, the reputational and commercial consequences of a fire safety enforcement notice are particularly acute. A prohibition notice, which can be issued if the fire and rescue service considers there to be a serious risk to life, can close a premises immediately. For a company with active development contracts or production obligations, that is not a theoretical risk to be managed alongside a long list of other priorities.
Good documentation is also, practically speaking, the thing most likely to demonstrate compliance if an enforcement visit does occur. A building where the assessments are complete, current and properly recorded, where training records are maintained, and where fire door and alarm testing logs are up to date, is a building where enforcement attention tends to be brief and outcome-neutral.
Fire Doors and Compartmentation in Converted Industrial Premises
Many defence and security start-ups occupy converted industrial or warehouse space that was originally designed for a very different occupancy. The fire compartmentation that exists in such buildings was specified for the original use, not for a workshop where drone components are assembled, batteries are charged in bulk, and technical drawings of sensitive equipment are stored.
Fire doors in these premises often receive insufficient attention. They are treated as passive infrastructure, held open with wedges, subjected to modifications to accommodate cables or ducting, or simply not inspected with any regularity. A fire door that cannot close properly, or whose seals have deteriorated, provides far less protection than a completed fire risk assessment would assume. Where the compartmentation of a building is part of the basis for the fire safety strategy, the integrity of every element of that compartmentation needs to be verified and maintained.
Our fire door inspection service provides a systematic assessment of every fire door in a premises, with a clear report identifying defects and the remediation required. For companies in converted industrial space, this is often one of the most immediate practical steps available, because defects that have accumulated over years of occupation can be identified and addressed relatively quickly once they have been properly documented.
A Note on North West and North Wales Relevance
The defence and security technology sector has a meaningful presence in the North West and North Wales, and it is growing. The region has established aerospace and defence supply chains centred on BAE Systems at Warton and Samlesbury, a significant academic research base across the universities of Manchester, Liverpool, Salford and Chester, and a growing ecosystem of start-ups and scale-ups working on drone technology, cybersecurity, electronic warfare and autonomous systems.
Many of these companies are based in business parks and enterprise zones across Cheshire, Merseyside and North Wales, in premises that were built for general commercial use and are being adapted for work that those buildings were not designed to accommodate. The fire safety implications of that mismatch, combined with the elevated threat environment that defence work brings with it, make this a sector where proactive fire safety management is not a compliance formality but a genuine operational requirement.
We work with organisations across Chester, Cheshire, the Wirral, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Warrington and North Wales, and we understand the specific character of the buildings, the supply chains and the regulatory environment in this region. If your company is growing, if you are handling lithium-ion batteries at scale, or if your threat picture has changed since your last fire risk assessment was carried out, the right course of action is a review before circumstances force one.
Talk to Fletcher Risk About Your Premises
We carry out fire risk assessments, fire door inspections and fire safety training for organisations across the North West and North Wales, including companies operating in technical and defence-adjacent sectors. If you would like to discuss what your current fire safety arrangements look like and whether they reflect the risk in your building today, please get in touch.
This article is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal or professional fire safety advice. Fire safety requirements vary depending on premises type, occupancy, materials and specific circumstances. Responsible persons should seek a professional fire risk assessment tailored to their building and operations. Fletcher Risk Management is based in Chester and provides fire risk assessments, fire door inspections and fire safety training across the North West and North Wales.