Fire & life safety before plan check
Helonic is an AI construction drawing analysis platform for preconstruction teams using Helonic for fire life safety.
Automatically check construction drawings for fire rating continuity, egress compliance, and life safety code requirements. Identify code violations before plan review to reduce rejection cycles and costly rework.
Why does fire and life safety matter on drawings?
A fire-rated assembly or egress miss caught at plan check delays the permit; the same miss in the field is a life-safety correction under occupancy pressure.
| Figure | What it measures |
|---|---|
| 60% | Comments that are fire and life safety issues |
| $50K | Average code rework cost in the field per violation |
| 30+ | Checks performed automatically per sheet |
| IBC 2021 | Aligned with the current International Building Code |
How does Helonic go from PDF upload to fire and life safety findings?
Helonic checks fire-rated assemblies, exits, and occupancy calculations against the applicable IBC and NFPA sections and cites the miss.
- Upload your drawings. Drop your architectural and life safety drawing sheets into Helonic. We process floor plans, egress plans, and fire-rated assembly details.
- Code identification. AI identifies the applicable building code (IBC, local amendments) and occupancy classifications from your drawings and code analysis sheets.
- Compliance check. Every fire-rated wall, egress path, exit sign, and occupancy calculation is checked against the identified code requirements.
- Issue report. Receive a prioritized list of code compliance issues with specific code references, sheet locations, and recommended remediation steps.
What fire and life safety checks does Helonic run?
Helonic checks rated walls and openings, occupant load, exit capacity, and sprinkler coverage notes against the life-safety drawings.
- Fire-rated assembly verification. Confirms that fire-rated walls, floors, and ceilings maintain their rating through penetrations and intersections.
- Egress path analysis. Validates exit access travel distances, common path of travel, and dead-end corridor lengths against IBC Chapter 10.
- Occupancy load calculation. Checks that exit capacity (door widths, stair widths, corridor widths) meets calculated occupant load requirements.
- Fire separation distance. Verifies exterior wall fire-resistance ratings and opening protectives based on proximity to property lines.
- Sprinkler coverage review. Identifies areas that may lack adequate sprinkler coverage based on room layouts and obstruction rules.
Why do fire and life safety misses delay permits?
Fire and life safety requirements are the single largest category of plan review comments. Getting rejected at plan check means weeks of redesign, resubmission, and schedule impact. Worse, fire code violations discovered during construction can halt work entirely, requiring demolition and reconstruction of non-compliant assemblies.
Helonic pre-screens your drawings against IBC fire and life safety requirements before you submit for plan review. Catch the issues that plan checkers will flag, including egress path distances, fire-rated continuity, and exit capacity, and resolve them while changes are still on paper, not in concrete.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Helonic check fire rating continuity on drawings?
Which egress requirements does Helonic check against IBC Chapter 10?
How does Helonic know which building code applies to my project?
Can Helonic check fire separation distance and opening protectives?
Does Helonic review sprinkler coverage on architectural plans?
Manas Gandhi
Co-founder & CTO, HelonicManas is the co-founder and CTO of Helonic, where he leads engineering and AI research for construction drawing analysis. He works directly with structural, MEP, civil, and fire protection engineers to translate the way they review drawings into AI systems that flag the issues that actually matter in the field. Before Helonic, he built machine learning pipelines for technical document understanding and has spent the last several years interviewing licensed design engineers and discipline leads to ground product decisions in real practice rather than industry assumptions.
- AI for technical document understanding
- Cross-discipline coordination workflows
- Code compliance automation (IBC, NEC, NFPA, IPC, IMC, ASCE)
- Structural and MEP drawing review systems
How this page was researched: Checks reference the 2021 International Building Code, including the Chapter 10 means of egress limits on travel distance, common path of travel, and dead-end corridors, along with the applicable NFPA sections and local amendments identified on the code analysis sheets.
Last reviewed by Manas Gandhi · October 2026