Identify every animal housing area and how animals are kept there, then trace separations, means of egress for people and animals, detection, alarm, suppression, and hazardous storage through every discipline. AI can flag conflicts; the designer and the authority having jurisdiction decide compliance.
What does NFPA 150 cover?
NFPA 150 is the Fire and Life Safety in Animal Housing Facilities Code. NFPA describes it as establishing life and safety requirements for both humans and animals in all types of animal housing facilities where animals are kept for any purpose, including barns, stables, kennels, animal shelters, veterinary facilities, zoos, laboratories, and racetracks.
NFPA’s official NFPA 150 page identifies the 2025 edition as current when checked on October 5, 2026. Confirm the edition, local amendments, and project scope that actually govern the work. The publisher’s newest edition does not establish local adoption.
NFPA 150 sits beside the building and life safety codes the authority adopts, such as those reviewed in the IBC guide and the NFPA 101 guide. Animal research spaces may also involve the NFPA 45 laboratory guide. Record which documents apply before comparing anything.
Start from the animal areas
Bring the architectural plans with room uses and animal capacities, the life safety plans, the wall and door schedules, the fire alarm and detection drawings, the sprinkler drawings, the mechanical drawings for ventilation, the plans for hay, bedding, feed, or fuel storage, the site plan for outdoor pens and access, and the specifications.
Note how animals are kept in each area: stalls, kennels, cages, or open pens. That detail changes how egress and separation questions are read on the drawings.
Trace protection through each animal area
| Review question | Sources to compare | Decision to record |
|---|---|---|
| Animal areas | Architectural plans, room schedule, code analysis | Confirm each animal area and its use is labelled the same way on every sheet. |
| Egress for people and animals | Life safety plans, door schedule, site plan | Check that exits, gates, and doors serving animal areas match across plans and schedules. |
| Separations | Wall types, life safety plans, sections | Identify separations around storage or service areas drawn differently on plans and sections. |
| Detection and alarm | Fire alarm plans, specifications, mechanical plans | Compare the detection type drawn in each area with the specification and the room conditions. |
| Suppression | Sprinkler plans, specifications, code analysis | Check that areas the analysis or specifications list as sprinklered are covered on the drawings. |
| Combustible storage | Architectural plans, site plan, specifications | Locate hay, bedding, and feed storage and compare it with the separations and protection drawn. |
Carry alarm and notification into the NFPA 72 fire alarm guide, sprinklers into the NFPA 13 sprinkler guide, and fuel or chemical storage into the NFPA 400 hazardous materials guide.
Example: a hay loft that the sprinkler drawings miss
Hypothetical example. The architectural sections of a horse barn show a hay loft above the stalls, and the code analysis lists the building as fully sprinklered. The sprinkler drawings cover the stall level and tack room but show no coverage in the loft.
The architectural sections show a hay loft above the stalls, and the code analysis lists the barn as fully sprinklered, but the sprinkler drawings show no coverage in the loft. Please confirm the protection basis for the loft.
The designer confirms the protection approach and revises the drawings. Whether the barn meets the adopted code is the designer’s and authority’s decision.
Review an animal facility package with Groundbook
Upload the current project PDFs and relevant specifications to Groundbook. Identify the governing issues and add the applicable NFPA 150 reference from a copy you are licensed to use, where the license permits uploading it. State the edition, amendments, review area, and known exclusions in your instructions.
Compare the architectural plans, life safety plans, wall and door schedules, fire alarm drawings, sprinkler drawings, mechanical drawings, storage plans, site plan, and specifications. Flag animal areas, egress, separations, detection, suppression, and storage that differ between sources. Use the supplied NFPA 150 edition where applicable and cite both sources.
Groundbook links each potential finding to the sheets behind it. It compares the documents with each other and with the references you supply; it does not classify the facility.
Document review does not classify the facility, size systems, or approve the design. Those decisions remain with the designer and the authority having jurisdiction.