Jumpline magazine JUNE 2023 pages - Flipbook - Page 8
8
1403 Officers
Paul D Blake, Ret.
Treasurer
TREA$URER’$ Report
ISO Class 1
Not a rating, but a mindset
I read the memo. We are five
points away from receiving an
International Standard Organization (ISO) Classification of 1.
The decal might say Class 1,
but it is really Class 1/1X. The
ISO fire rating determines how
well a fire department can protect our community. Insurance
companies use this score to help set home insurance rates, as
a home that is less likely to be severely damaged or destroyed
by fire is cheaper to insure. The use of this rating varies by
insurance company. Looking at the big picture, with Citizens
looking to raise rates 14% and others no longer writing policies,
what will this mean, if anything, in the future?
In my opinion, it won’t mean much. It seemed that just a couple of decades ago, MDFR was not interested in ISO Classifications. The rationale back then was that we were classified as
a 4/9, then a Class 4/4X. Any improvement does not translate
into lower insurance costs for homeowners. The first number,
4, refers to the classification of properties within 5 road miles of
a fire station and within 1,000 feet of a creditable water supply.
The second number, 4X, applies to properties within 5 road
miles of a fire station but beyond 1,000 feet of a creditable water supply.
The rural setting would be those properties outside of the
Urban Development Boundary (UDB). When you look at the
growth, the future of housing and where the UDB is, “rural”
sounds attractive, but in Miami-Dade terms, it is properties that
have large yards. Because they do not have fire hydrants, they
would, theoretically, pay more for property insurance than comparable properties in an urban setting.
The only potential savings would apply towards commercial
properties if we went from an ISO Class 2/2X to a Class 1/1X.
Whatever saving businesses may see in premium reductions
would not translate into MDFR receiving more funding from
them for services. Also, just because you have a decent rating
does not necessarily mean that you have a decent fire department.
• 40% comes from availability of water supply, including the
prevalence of fire hydrants and how much water is available
to put out fires.
• 10% comes from the quality of the area’s emergency communications systems (911).
• An extra 5.5% comes from community outreach, including
fire prevention and safety courses.
Any fire department that scores above 90% receives the highest ranking, a 1.
While putting the truck into pump is only a small part of our
job, ISO only cares and evaluates our ability to reduce property
losses from fire.
ISO Class 1 is more than just a rating; it is a mindset. How often
have you heard, “We don’t get fires anymore”?
The closest department in size to us in the State of Florida
is Jacksonville. They respond to 2/3 the number of calls that
we do. They have sixty-two fire stations. Of those 62 stations,
59 of them are staffed with an engine and rescue. They also
operate 5 heavy rescues and 15 of their stations also have an
aerial piece. The remaining 3 stations are either ARFF or marine stations. They are a Class 1 Fire Department. When you
look at 2021 NFIRS data, you will see that we arrived at more
fires than any other department in the State of Florida, twice as
many structure fires as Jacksonville.
As for the “Class 1 mindset,” I am sorry, but we do not have
it. If we did, you would not see single company rescue stations;
especially if they are located greater than 1.5 miles from a suppression unit. Only if the station is in the fringe areas would it be
staffed with a suppression unit. The rationale has always been
that EMS constitutes the largest percentage of our calls and
citizens want a rescue truck when they are having a medical
emergency, not a fire truck. Maybe back when our fire trucks
had only first responder training, but today’s suppression unit
has everything a rescue does, minus a stretcher. Perhaps it is
ignorance or the inability to understand our system as to why
we saw and still see a proliferation of single company rescue
stations.
According to ISO’s Fire Suppression Rating
Schedule, four main criteria comprise a fire rating
score:
When deciding upon what type of unit should be placed at
Station 53, the plan was to move Tanker 43 so that the TRT
response would be adjacent to the turnpike. The unit would be
converted to an aerial piece and both a newly bid tanker and
rescue would be placed in service at Station 43. The Assistant
Chief of Operations insisted that Station 53 would open with a
rescue as their “family lived in 53’s territory.” Mind you that was
back when Engine 9 was “The Punisher” because there was
no L13, R13, P53, R41, E57 and R57. Engine 9’s territory was
literally the size of the entire City of Miami. We do not have a
Class 1 mindset.
• 50% comes from the quality of your local fire department, including staffing levels, training, and proximity of the firehouse.
In the past thirty years, we have added 50+ units, thirty of
those being rescues. Our current budget of $662 million has
ISO sets forth criteria that must be met to gain points. An ISO
fire rating, also referred to as a Public Protection Classification,
is a score from 1 to 10 that indicates how well-protected the
community is by the fire department. In the ISO rating scale,
a lower number is better: 1 is the best possible rating, while
a 10 means the fire department did not meet ISO’s minimum
requirements.
June 2023 | JUMPLINE Magazine
