Fire departments have a unique position in the development review process. While building officials focus on structural integrity and planners evaluate zoning building code compliance, fire marshals and their teams must ensure that every new construction project meets critical life safety requirements — everything from adequate emergency vehicle access to proper fire suppression systems.
Yet despite the crucial nature of fire safety review, fire departments often find themselves operating on the periphery of the plan review process.
The Hidden Challenges Fire Departments Face
Traditional plan review methods can create significant obstacles to ensuring a smooth plan review with regard to fire safety. For one, fire departments are often headquartered in a different location than the rest of the government agencies that are part of plan review.
This was the case in Clark County, Washington. Departments were scattered across different buildings, with the fire department located in a separate town from the other agencies. “The logistics of moving paper plan reviews from our building department located in downtown Vancouver to the Fire Marshal's office, located in Ridgefield, added additional days for review,” said Deputy Fire Marshal Curtis Eavenson.
Whether siloed physically or digitally by technology, when reviews happen in isolation, fire marshals lack visibility into the changes requested by other departments — changes that can impact fire safety requirements and create frustrating delays and the need for additional revisions and internal review cycles.
The time constraints that fire professionals face compound these challenges. Fire marshals wear many hats, serving as firefighters, safety educators, investigators, and instructors, while also having to manage plan reviews as part of the permitting process. Finding time to track down plan sets or coordinate with other departments becomes increasingly difficult, especially when balancing these demands with critical emergency response functions.
When plans are siloed across disparate systems, like email, PDF viewers, and file sharing applications, the lack of easy access to the most current documentation presents another barrier. Fire inspectors need immediate access to approved plans, but when plans are scattered across different locations, response and review times suffer.
How Avolve Plan Review Eliminates These Barriers
Avolve electronic plan review solutions help directly address these challenges with a number of key features and functionality. By centralizing all project documents in one accessible platform, fire officials gain instant access to plans, whether they're conducting routine inspections or responding to emergencies.
With a single source of truth, real-time collaboration is possible, which transforms the review process from isolated silos into coordinated teamwork across various departments. Fire marshals can see comments and changes from building, planning, and engineering departments as they happen, ensuring fire safety requirements align with other code compliance needs. This visibility prevents conflicting correction requests and reduces the frustrating back-and-forth that occurs when departments work in isolation.
Avolve Mobile Capabilities Allows for Offline Access
Mobile access capabilities can also prove particularly valuable for fire operations. Armed with current floorplans and safety system information on their mobile device, Fire departments can more swiftly and accurately respond during emergencies.
Avolve Mobile takes the field capability even further and transforms how fire departments conduct construction inspections. With Avolve Mobile, fire inspectors can markup and comment on plans, and even download approved plans for offline access, which is critical when inspecting remote facilities or areas with poor connectivity.
Avolve GIS Brings Critical Spatial Intelligence for Fire Safety Planning
Beyond streamlined collaboration, modern electronic plan review platforms also integrate Geographic Information System (GIS) capabilities that provide fire departments with essential spatial context for every project. Avolve GIS, powered by Esri ArcGISÒ, embeds live maps directly within the plan review interface, eliminating the need to toggle between separate systems.
Fire marshals can now overlay building plans onto aerial maps to immediately assess emergency vehicle access routes, verify proximity to fire stations and hydrants, and evaluate potential staging areas for emergency operations. The embedded Esri maps also reveals critical infrastructure relationships — how a new development might impact existing emergency services, whether proposed building heights create accessibility challenges for ladder trucks, or if site placement creates blind spots for emergency responders. This geographic context ensures fire safety considerations are evaluated not in isolation, but rather as part of the broader community safety ecosystem.
Supporting Your Fire Department with Better Tools
It’s clear that modern fire departments deserve the best technological solutions available, ones that support rather than complicate their critical public safety mission. Avolve Plan Review is designed with fire department workflows in mind to help ensure that fire safety remains an integral part of the development process — not an afterthought. Check out how Avolve’s electronic plan review solutions ProjectDox and DigEplan can help you.
Ready to see how electronic plan review can support your fire safety mission? Book a demo to explore Avolve’s solutions today.