Your Next

Introduction

I set about writing this book in 1979 when as the Assistant Coordinator of Nevada State Fire Service Training and then later when the office was moved to the Nevada state fire marshal office of fire service training. I was confronted by endless questions from the state’s firefighters and chiefs about this new thing called the ISO™ Grading Schedule. That next year, the grading schedule changed and I started collecting data. This book is updated at least every three months. What is ISO™? The Insurance Services Office (ISO™) is a for profit monopoly that is authorized by your state legislature or Department of Insurance and is used in essentially the same form in 50 states (Washington and Mississippi has their own state system based upon the 1974 schedule and 3 other states have state run systems using the same ISO™ rules as everyone else) to rate community fire defenses. ISO™ then sells that data to the insurance industry for the purposes of establishing insurance rates. Why do they want to collect this data? Simple, over the last 10 years at least 122 billion dollars in insured fire losses have occurred in the U.S. Over 35% of all claims paid on homeowner policies are for fire losses versus just 6% for liability claims. ISO™ and its predecessors have been rating communities since 1916. In 1889 the National Board of Fire Underwriters (NBFO) started grading fire protection. The NBFU was merged into ISO™ in 1971. The goal of rating communities is to provide better insurance rate equity in recognizing public fire suppression abilities.

So who uses ISO™ ratings? According to ISO™, virtually every insurance carrier uses their data to calculate rates. The ISO™ audit is a totally open book test. The only problem is they don’t share the whole book and the rules with the fire services. Thus the purpose for this free guide. The ISO™ rating play a part setting commercial, contents, homeowner, crop and rental insurance rates. ISO™ rates communities every 10 years if their population is over 25,000 or 15 years if they are under 25,000. In addition, they send out questionnaires every 30 months. Depending upon how you fill out form you can trigger an audit. Changes in district boundaries, station locations, automatic aid agreements, number and type of apparatus and many others could also result in an early audit. Anytime a community can prove to ISO™ they can improve their grade, ISO™ will come out and re-rate the community.

The ISO™ completes four evaluations and awards individual grades for the following:

1) A review of the communications and dispatch facilities.

2) A review of the water system and supplies.

3) A review of the fire department.

4) And a community wide grade combined of the three above.

The community wide grade has a 100 point score and is made up of communications which counts for 10%, water supply which totals 40% and the fire department is worth 50%. Every ten points is a Class. The grade is presented in a Class 1 to 10 format with Class 1 being the best and Class 9 being the worst with a fire department. A Class 10 indicates no creditable fire protection is available within 5 miles.

Points Needed for Each Class

% Credit Class % Credit Class

90.0 – 100 1 40.0 - 49.9 6

80.0 – 89.9 2 30.0 – 39.9 7

70.0 – 79.9 3 20.0 – 29.9 8

60.0 – 69.9 4 10.0 - 19.9 9

50.0 – 59.9 5 0.1 - 9.9 10

The grading audit simply measures compliance to a few national minimum standards in the respective areas. Examples of questions asked are: Can a caller find the fire department number in the phone book? Does the water system match the needed fire flow requirements of the buildings in the community? Is the fire department capable of addressing the possible fires in the city? Are your ladders long enough to reach the buildings you protect?

A Class 1 community pays the lowest possible rates and scores 90% or better on meeting the ISO™ portions of the national standards in communications, fire department and water supply. A Class 5 pays medium rates and meets 50 to 60% of the national standards. A Class 9 is the worst grade given for any form of recognized fire protection and only scores 10 to 20%. There is at least 62% swing in rates controlled by the rating and as much as 340%.

A poll of the Nation’s fire chiefs indicates the importance of ISO™ ratings and public fire protection. Sixty two percent say it effects budget decisions. Seventy percent say it saves people money but more importantly 90% say it is important to saving lives and property. ISO™ collects data from all fire loses in the U.S. What they have found is insurance companies pay out less in claims in communities with better ISO™ ratings. In fact, there is 340% difference top to bottom on commercial losses and a 297% difference on residential losses. Good fire protection is an investment in saving lives and property.

Loss per $1,000 valuation Source: ISO™

Class Commercial Residential Class Commercial Residential

1 $0.25 $0.37 6 $0.45 $0.55

2 $0.30 $0.37 7 $0.55 $0.75

3 $0.35 $0.42 8 $0.60 $0.78

4 $0.37 $0.45 9 $0.68 $0.79

5 $0.38 $0.49 10 $0.85 $1.10

My Consulting Services

The most common question I get is, “how did you gather all this info on how to improve a departments rating?” The answer is simple, with so much at stake, cities, towns, taxing districts, fire boards, unions, associations, counties, fire districts and get this, even insurance agents have hired me as an expert to give them a better chance of scoring better on their next rating. If you are a Class 9 or 10, the cost to fix what ails you will always be 10 to 15 less than the yearly savings per homeowner will be. Over the last 20 years I’ve helped 400 communities in 42 states preparing for their ISO™ ratings lower their grades. Communities as large as Houston, Texas (the 4^th largest FD in the US population 2 million and the largest city rated by ISO™ ) and as small as Kingston, Nevada (population 110) have used me to be their agent. Most fire chiefs have never had to face an ISO™ evaluation. Very few will ever do it twice. Can you imagine what the consequences of a few key mistakes can make for the next 10 to 15 years? Can you say millions of dollars? Consequently chief’s, fire boards, city and county manager’s are looking for someone who has. Their first requirement is a track record of success. I’ve been pretty lucky in that category. Why hire a consultant? Because the ISO™ sends in a non-firefighter bean counter into your fire department looking out for the insurance industry. You are armed with their 50 page Rating Schedule. In addition, ISO™ hides almost 1000 pages of rules you do not have access to, but holds you accountable for all of them. I’ve been pretty lucky helping with grades:

*The biggest and smallest towns in the U.S. with Class 1’s.

*Best ISO Grade in the U.S, 13 times.

*The highest paid department score ever attained 97.01 points.

*The highest volunteer department score ever attained 95.27 points.

*The highest score attained by a combination department 94.81 points.

*Best paid department ISO grade in the U.S, 17 times.

*Best combination fire department ISO grade in the U.S, 5 times.

*Best volunteer department ISO grade in the U.S, 8 times.

*Best ISO rural water supply grade in the U.S, 12 times.

*Best ISO hose lay grade in the U.S, 8 times.

*Best ISO tanker shuttle grade in the U.S, 8 times.

*Best largest city ISO grade in the U.S, 3 times.

*Best smallest town ISO grade in the U.S, 9 times.

*First and only volunteer department ISO Class 1’s in the U.S, three times.

*Combination department ISO Class 1’s,43 times.

*Best ISO grade in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, and New Mexico.

*Best paid department ISO grade in Arizona, Nevada, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and New Mexico.

* Best volunteer department ISO grade in Nevada, Oregon, Colorado, Texas,

Pennsylvania, and North Carolina,

*Best Combination department ISO grade in Texas and Arizona.

*Best rural ISO water supply grades in Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Colorado, California, New Mexico, North Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia.

*Largest class drops in rating history 3 times, 8 classes at 3 times; 7 classes at once, 3 times; 6 classes at one time, 5 times; 5 classes at 3 times, 5 classes, 4 times; and 4 classes at one time 5 times.

* Largest class drop to the coveted Class 1: 8 class drop, 3 times; 5 classes, twice; and 5 classes twice and four classes, 3 times.

*29 of the top 32 rural water supply grades in the country (All Class 5 or better, most 2, 3 or 4’s),

*My average reduction on my last 35 grades with fire hydrants is 3.34 Classes!

*My average reduction on my last 16 grades without fire hydrants is 5.61 Classes!

*In just three years of ISO in Texas, I've helped make all 7 Class 1's. There are only 43 total Class 1's in the U.S. California is 1st with 9 (with 5 of those no longer rated), Florida and Louisiana tied for3rd with 5, Illinois 5th with 4, Nevada 6th with 3 and 9 other states have 1 or 2 each.

What I Do

I’m often asked, “what exactly do you do?” I provide a pre-audit that tells you what you would score today, how much money you could save if you improved the grade and create an action plan to attain a much better grade. You get all of that in a written report. I will present my findings to your elected officials if you wish to help you get support and funding to attain the goal. I will hold your hand and make sure you do what it takes to reach your goal or exceed it. I help you collect all the required information for the rating and package it in a useable form. Assist the department in getting money to fund upgrades from the elected officials ISO™ related or otherwise. Make presentations to your bosses to help make your case and win approval. Work with the water and communications arms of government to make sure they are on the same page for the rating. Help the community make needed upgrades in fire protection in a more rapid fashion than they might normally act. One constant is not to do a single thing just for the rating unless it improves community fire protection services. Specify new apparatus for the department. Write and receive grants for fire apparatus, equipment and water systems. Create innovative low cost solutions to solve gaps in the community fire defenses. I will put together programs to train the fire fighters on how to pass the hands on portions of the rating. And finally present their community’s data to the ISO™ field agent when he is in town and perform all the necessary follow up and make sure the community gets the grade we set out to get. The end goal is to make it as easy as possible on the graded department to score the maximum points and use all of the rules available. What’s more is have in place a guide for the next rating so you know how you got the current grade and how to repeat it or improve it. My last two gradings were scheduled for 5 and 10 days. One took 3 1/2 hours and the other barely 2 days. In each case the departments dropped 5 and 6 Classes each!

So what do you charge? Typically, less than $5000 plus airfare, meals and lodging to do all the above. Larger areas a bit more. Simply give me a call or email and I’ll email back a specific quote.

I try and bring neighboring departments and governments together to accomplish a goal. Recently in Marion, Virginia and Seabrook, Texas the elected government and the fire departments were at war. In both cases I was able to get the embattled entities together and move them forward. In Marion, that meant an entire fleet of five fully equipped fire apparatus with full support of government. The fire department only asked for one truck. In Seabrook, 67% of the voters authorized the replacement of all fire stations and apparatus in the town of 10,000 to the tune of 6.1 million dollars! In total, 9.3 million dollars was committed to improved fire protection services. Not bad for a fire department with a $300,00 a year budget.

On occasion, the rating comes back wrong from ISO™. I review each posted grade to insure you got credit where credit was deserved. In those cases I will meet with the department and ISO™ to defend the data in your records to support a better grade. My three reviews that required ISO™ visits resulted in drops in the rating from a Class 3 to a Class 1 and a Class 5 to a Class 3. Recently a department wanted credit for its police officers who responded directly to fire calls. The auditor wanted to see the firefighters protective clothing carried on the police cars. There is no requirement for them to carry gear but to simply have it available. How would the fire department know that? Their rule book is not available to the fire service. I pointed that that out to the auditor and showed it to him in his own book. Another example at the same rating was the rating came back saying the community didn’t have enough water at the test locations. We went out and re-flowed the hydrants and could prove the system if tested properly did in fact have plenty of water. ISO™ came out and re-flowed the system. During the test we found they were using hydrants for buildings 4 and 5 blocks away. In another case, the auditor only credited a few hundred gallons per minute on a rural hose lay from a draft point. I was able to sit down with him and his local and national boss and do the math for them and show how the apparatus would be employed in the operation. In another case pre-plans were not credited nor was their dual channel dispatch policy. In each case we showed them with their own paperwork they were wrong. Full credit was then given. Simply looking at what a department submitted and knowing the rule book very well I have been able to get volunteers credit for as many as 5 paid firefighters without having any on the payroll. Another pretty incredible example was having all ISO™ big shots come down to a huge city to verify the work of one of their field agents who was not longer with the company. They looked at an engine and a ladder company to see what it was missing on the ISO™ equipment list. They came back with several items on both rigs that were missing. They didn’t even share with us what was missing until I asked. What the fire chief of found out that day that the auditors couldn’t identify the items on the fire trucks to give credit nor would they give credit for item on the ISO™ substitutions lists unless the fire department pointed them out to them. Imagine having the auditor go through your apparatus and ask him if anything was missing and he gives you a list of what is not on the rig. Next thing you point out that you have approved substitutions and ask him, “do we get credit” and he says, “I don’t know.” You show him his own substitution list, he asks you, “where you got it”, you say, “on your web page.” His answer is, “I’ll have to check if the items will count.” Another example you email the top auditor at the home office and ask do we have to do flow tests in a drought. He writes back no you won’t if you have 5 years of data on all your hydrants. The field auditor comes out and makes you flow the hydrants. Finally, during a rural water supply grade I often find I am teaching the auditor what his bosses are looking for to score the grade properly. These types of things vary from state to state. In short you are responsible for making sure you get credit, don’t expect your auditor to do it for you.

Sometimes ISO™ has even changed the rule book based upon the water supply tactics I’ve taught fire departments to utilize to move water. Often communities have me review their last rating or newly posted grades to see if there are any easy ways to quickly lower their rating. Yes, many times the old grade is wrong or things that could have been counted are not credited. In most cases, the auditors I have worked with before get along very well and the grade goes fast. In addition, I have helped states create funding for fire departments based upon their ISO™ ratings.

Although I don’t advertise my services (other than people who stumble across my web page) I take every opportunity to spread the gospel of ISO™ as a good funding tool for the fire service. It is something the elected officials listen to. Some of the best examples of how to take on ISO™ that I can share are from are from the departments and students who attend classes I was invited to teach around the country. For seven years I wrote a monthly column “Your Next Rating” in Fire Rescue Magazine ( I was the editor and creator of the magazine) trying to get the word out. Over the years I kept extensive notes of what worked and what didn’t work. I’d record all the silly rules that were pulled out of thin air from the Field Procedures Manuals that are not available to the fire service. The notes from those ratings became this book. And the book became the magazine column.

So What’s the Worst that can Happen?

The first person that finds out about your new rating is not the fire department or the fire chief, it will be the Mayor, City Manager, Board or District President…the person you work for. The facts about ISO™ ratings are quite clear, most chiefs only go through one in a career. So do you wing it or get help? So what could possibly go wrong? Ask that question in Salida, Colorado or Madison, Indiana. Ask about their 2003 ratings. You’d hear that ISO™ can come in rate you and in just a few months you could drop from a Class 4 or 5 to a Class 10. Yes, a Class 10. Things can get a lot worse, it happened in both City’s. You’ll get a nice form letter telling you that you need to reply in 30 days of your intent to fix the grade or the new rating will go into effect. You’ll have a few months to present a written action plan to ISO™ on how you are going to repair the regression in the rating. What does falling from a Class 4 or 5 to a Class 10 mean in real terms? About a 300% increase in insurance rates. A quadrupling of deductibles. Maybe 20% of the original insurance providers will be able to provide coverage in your community. Most homes will not be able to get replacement insurance. In short, your fire department can have a multi-million dollar impact on the community every year for the next 10 to 15 years. You’ll also note the fire chief is often let go and occasionally the city manager as well. When Roswell, NM got a Class 4 from their prevous Class 3, the chief called and faxed me what he was sent from his field rep. It gave all kinds of options, all quite expensive. Things like add a training tower, hire more people, buy a ladder truck, etc. We didn’t use a single one. Instead we simply reviewed the rating, wrote one letter and added one fire hydrant and got the Class 3 back. It is far bettr to come in before the rating than after the bad news is delivered. In some cases when the elected leaders bring me in the fire chief is already down the road. Other departments receiving regression letters recently were Colorado Springs, CO Class 5 from a 3 and Bozeman, MT Class 5 from a Class 4. Both cities had lots of bad press focused on the fire services. What a consultant can offer is the avoidance of conflict. To help cover your tail so you don’t have to face the fire over the rating or any portion of the rating.

Just when you thought you heard it all, ISO™ sometimes has to revisit a city to verify the accuracy and objectivity of their survey. Kinda makes you wonder why the objectivity would be an issue, I assume that means their auditors objectivity. ISO™ is also obligated to investigate complaints about the process from anyone in the community, including private citizens. City officials will be notified when such investigations are necessary. The Affidavit of Honesty, sometimes is required of fire chiefs, may be required of water superintendents and city managers in the future. What a mess huh?

Success Stories

During that time some amazing things happened. A small desert community (Beatty, Nevada population 1700) protected by volunteers asked me to give them a hand with their rating. They earned a Class 4, a first for any non-hydranted area. Previously they had a Class 6 in town and a Class 9/10 out of town. The rural area also got a Class 4. Only 2.65% of the Nation’s fire departments have better grades. A mere 1500 departments have a better rating and 43,000 have a poorer grades. What makes rural water supply grades special is the fact only 400 departments have ever earned anything other than a Class 9 the worst grade you can have with a organized fire department. Many cities have Class 9 ratings that apply to all property beyond 1000 feet from a fire hydrant. In fact, several Class 1 communities have Class 9 area in their response areas. Shortly after the Beatty rating two other volunteer departments I assisted dropped from Class 10’s to Class 3’s without water systems relying on shuttles and draft point and hydrant supplied relays. Only sixteen thousands of one percent of the fire departments in the country have done better. Of course all of them have done it with a complete fire hydrant system and most have fully paid departments. I’ve been fortunate enough to help a bunch of rural departments without fire hydrants get Class 1’s, 2’s, 3’s, 4’s and 5’s with tanker shuttles, long hose lays, drafting or a combination of methods. A couple departments have dropped 7 classes at one time. A few have dropped 9 classes and others 8 at one pop. All of a sudden other departments heard of the successes and I was spending a couple weeks a month on the road helping others do the same thing.

A good friend’s department (Dallas, Oregon population 10,000) earned a Class 2 in a hydranted city, at the time the best volunteer grade in the U.S. At the time only 80 departments all fully paid had Class 2 grades. I helped three volunteer departments (Fallon, NV, Tomball, TX and DuBois, PA) get Class 1’s, the only three ever awarded to the un-paid fire service. My advice helped Class 5 and Class 6 departments (Sam Bass, Frisco, Meadows, Stafford and Wylie, Texas) all score a Class 1’s in one step. What was special about the Frisco http://www.friscofire.org/ rating is when the Field Representative came to town he said the department would earn a Class 3. In 90 minutes I showed him why the department should score a Class 1. Another oddity, was right after a county wide ISO™ class I taught three departments in that county all got Class 1’s. There must be something to the words in this book. Today only 45 departments and 53 community’s have Class 1’s out of approximately 88,000 ratings. That number will be going up shortly due to some other departments following the advice in this book. Many departments through the excuse of ISO™ rating process actually started the process for the first time of conducting strategic analysis of their fire protection needs. While chasing a better ISO™ grade every department improved their firefighting capabilities. It has always been my goal not to have a fire department chase a better grade but to improve fire protection services. In the process of improving their system the ISO™ grade will fall with it.

I like to work fast, in most cases from the time I am invited into a community until the grading is completed is 4 to 9 months. If a fleet wide apparatus replacement program or new stations are in order that time line typically hits 18 months but not always. In Sam Bass we dropped 6 classes on the town grade and 8 on the rural grade and doubled the number of apparatus all in just 4 months. I don’t do multi-year plans, there is way too much money at stake in the short term to drag the rating out. Most small towns are looking at $100,000 a month in unnecessarily high insurance premiums for their taxpayers. Speed is important. If you are looking for a big fat report to put on the shelf, I’m the wrong guy to hire, but if you want to improve things and take immediate action I’m the guy. I will hold your hand all along the way.

Through word of mouth cities, county and fire district officials invited me to their locals to have a look see and suggest changes. Many chiefs allowed me to speak to their elected officials and gather over 60 million dollars worth of improvements and the number goes up every month. A couple times a month some community would be given authorization to follow their consultants report and order fire trucks, loose equipment, fill in missing hydrants, add stations, increase staffing and get about the things that improve the rating. It is very rewarding to see progress. A few times a year I am brought in to follow another consultant who couldn’t get the job done. So far I have improved every single rating where I followed another consultant.

One common question I’m often asked is, “Anyone can tell us what we should do, what about your own department, what kind of a grade do you have, advice is easy?” I like to answer that question by saying I live in the smallest town ever to earn a Class 1 and we did it with volunteers! And yes, I helped then attain it. My hometown Fallon, Nevada population in town 7,500 and in the 5,000 square mile county with 24,000 people . http://www.geocities.com/Baja/Trails/6658/ We were able to get authorization to replace all the fire trucks and the equipment they carried in just 72 hours with no prior notice from the time we presented the elected officials with our plan at an emergency city council meeting. That same week we got the county to buy in and carry half the load. We went from stone-age to star wars over night. Three new stations were built as well. Our city grade fell 5 classes and our rural grade 7, 8 and 9 classes. We currently sit at a Class 1 in town and Class 3 in our rural areas. Yes, a volunteer department can have the two best ISO™ ratings in the US. This consultant’s hometown followed his advice. In fact, I presented the data to ISO™ for the community just a few months after all the fire apparatus and equipment arrived. When I worked as Director of fire service training for the State Fire Marshal’s Office I put together a program to teach departments about insurance rating rules. That training allowed something no other state can say, we have 80% of the people in Nevada living in an ISO Class 1 protected area.

Other communities for the first time understood the ISO™ game, brought me in and began investing in fire services. In Texas for example, Magnolia http://www.magnoliafire.org/ (population 44,000) Class 6 town of 2 square miles and a 300 square mile unhydranted rural area with a Class 9 and 10. We traded their fleet of city apparatus in and got 13 new rural rigs worth 4.5 million bucks. They did not have to raise taxes either. I simply restructured how they did business. Now each station has an engine and a pumper tanker, 3750 gallons of water, 4,000 feet of 5 inch hose to make full use of almost 100 draft sites. Magnolia was the first department given credit by ISO™ for lifting water from ponds vertically 60 feet and up to 400 feet from a pumper using soft hose. They scored a Class 3 district wide. We did a lot more than fix a rating. We made a much better fire department upgrades such as every station has hydraulic rescue tools and all apparatus pack thermal imagers.

Magnolia’s neighbor, Spring http://www.friscofire.org/ (population 120,000) with a Class 6 hydranted area and a Class 9 and 10 huge rural area (125 square miles), purchased seven 75 foot CAF quints, a pair of mini pumpers, two 3000 gpm heavy rescue hose wagons and a couple 3000 gpm pumper tanker hose wagons. They offed all their old apparatus. They run over 26,000 feet of large diameter hose to make their distant hydrants and draft points useable. They built and remodeled a station and bought all new loose equipment worth 9.2 million dollars. They didn’t raise taxes either, we simply restructured their budget and offed their old equipment. ISO™ had a guy come in and tell them they only needed 2 ladders going into the grade. Of course, he was wrong, 7 was the magic number. The department was able to demonstrate the ability to meet an 8000 gpm fire flow without hydrants or mutual aid. What did they score? A Class 3 district wide. An earlier consultant made it clear they couldn’t fix their rural ISO™ grade. That using tankers was dangerous. That a Class 5 or maybe a 4 if everything went right in the hydranted area was possible. Boy were the wrong. We improved fire protection beyond ISO™ by adding things like automatic electronic accountability systems, thermal imagers, heavy hydraulic rescue tools on all apparatus, etc.

The Tomball Fire Department, (just north of Houston) with a population they protect of 9,000, refined many of Spring and Magnolia’s ideas to earn just earned an ISO™ Class 1 in town and a Class 2 in their rural area. The two lowest grades in the United States. They scored the second highest Class 1 point total ever. The fact they are volunteers is even more impressive. Only 43 other communities out of 44,800 rated towns and cities in the U.S. have Class 1's. Just three of those are protected by volunteer firefighters.

As with all success stories theirs began with a pre-audit I conducted and plan of attack. Their apparatus acquisition consisted of a CAFS pumper tanker, a tower ladder, a change from 4 inch hose to 5 inch and a station addition. The department protects a city of 12,000 with fire hydrants and a rural area of 24 square miles without fire hydrants or dry hydrants. Instead they used Turbo Draft (www.turbodraft.net) water siphons. Formerly, they were an ISO™ Class 4 town and a Class 9 and 10 rural area. Their drop from a Class 9/10 to a Class 2 represents the largest drop in ISO™ history. Less than 35 fire department in the U.S. have ever scored anything better than an ISO™ Class 6 without fire hydrants. Tomball now leads the pack. The citizens of the rural area will save from 500 to 1200 dollars a year for the next 15 years. Overall, the insurance savings will be in excess of 84 million dollars over the rating period. In other words, the cost of not addressing the rating was $84,000,000!

It would have been cost prohibitive to add dry hydrants in sufficient number to allow the needed fire flows in the Tomball, Spring and Magnolia fire districts. However, the Turbo Draft siphon option allowed each rig to carry a water siphon making all water points accessible without the expense of installing and maintaining fixed draft points. The siphons make the use of time consuming labor intensive hard suction hose unnecessary for almost all operations.

Formerly, the best Grade in the U.S. and Texas was held by Magnolia Fire Department, Tomball's neighbor to the north. The largest drop in an ISO™ rating in history at that time (second best now). Only 9 Texas departments all big city paid fire departments with complete hydrant coverage can match Tomball's ISO™ Class 2 without fire hydrants. Nationwide only 306 fire departments (0.06% of all fire departments) can match the Class 2. The average grade in the U.S. is an Class 7.12. In Texas it is a 7.0.

Tomball runs a 5 inch by 3 inch Turbo Draft preconnect line on their 3500 gallon pumper tanker. One end of the 3 inch line is attached to a rear discharge on the pumper the other end is connected to the Turbo Draft. One end of the 5 inch hose is connected to a rear direct tank fill and the other end to the outlet of the Turbo Draft. Leaving everything connected speeds deployment and allows one or two firefighters to place the device in use. A special 5 inch direct tank fill check valve inlet at the rear of the pumper allows the water from the Turbo Draft to enter the water tank directly. That frees the pump operator the task of worrying about incoming water. It took just 47 seconds and two fire fighters to deploy a 200 foot Turbo Draft, pick up water and place a deck gun in service for ISO™.

ISO™ now credits every water point within 400 feet of an all weather road for Turbo Draft use. The department had a fire flow requirement of 3500 gpm. When one Turbo Draft would not supply the needed fire flow several were employed by one fire truck. Each fire truck in Tomball carries 1500 to 2500 feet of 5 inch hose. At a fire, large diameter hose lines are laid to preplanned water points where turbo drafts provide the supply.

Their old grade like 99% of all grades in the country only applied to properties within 1000 feet of a fire hydrant. The combination of Turbo Drafts and 5 inch supply hose have changed that figure to all property within 5 miles of a fire station with no water point or fire hydrant distance requirements.

Tomball joins the exclusive Texas ISO™ rating club of Class 4 or better fire departments who don't rely on fire hydrants but instead employ Turbo Drafts for their water supply needs like; Spring with 13 Turbo Drafts, Magnolia, with 12, Annaville 9, and Crosby 5 and Sam Bass 2. Tomball's grade is a direct reflection of breaking with tradition and trying new products and concepts that really work to give the people of their fire protection district the best protection and insurance savings possible.

Crosby with a crew of four and a 200 foot draft only needed 60 seconds off, with no notice. Their off the cuff demonstration for their ISO™ rating was performed on their way to lunch. Another neat demo was a 4,250 foot supply line laid by Tomball for large diameter hose credit to extend the 1000 foot limit on their water sources. When they laid their supply line for ISO™ credit they laid half the hose and Magnolia laid the other half. They had never practiced the operation together before. Talk about faith in your neighbors! If they had messed the lay up the rating would be over and it would have been a year of Class 9 and 10 before they could have done it again. Magnolia demonstrated that one firefighter could layout 2500 feet of five inch hose by himself and flow 1000 gpm through a master stream. All three proved Class 9 grades beyond 1000 feet from a hydrant do not need to exist. In fact, all four of the departments have replaced the 1000 foot hydrant language with 5 miles from a fire station as they only limit to their ability to move water.

Some other Texas examples that I was able to help with include: Hood County (population 40,000) was able to get 10 fully equipped new pieces worth 2.2 million. Why did they order so many rigs? The county seat Granbury (population (7000) proved that ISO™ ratings do effect what people pay for fire insurance to the tune of $500 to $1500 a year in that county. Granbury got a quint and 7,000 feet of hose to pursue their rating goals. Their ratings dropped from a Class 5 in town to a Class 3 (the best volunteer grade in Texas at the time) and their rural rating a Class 9 dropped to a Class 6 the first and best water haul rating in Texas. Their neighboring county copied them to the tune of 29 rigs.

And the hits keep coming, Annaville, TX http://www.geocities.com/annavillefd/ (population 60,000) with a 100 square mile area. I was able to help them spec and order 9 fully equipped CAF units, a command unit and three new or remodeled stations for 6 million after going to the voters with a tripling of the tax rate. The volunteers covered a portion of a major city along with two career city fire stations. Every call gets a dual response of paid and volunteer fire departments. The people of that portion of the city are double taxed for fire protection service. Even with heavy opposition from the local news media, the city council, city and city union firefighters, 79% of the taxpayers voted in favor of improved fire services. We were able to drop their ISO Class 9 and 10 rural area to a Class 3 district wide with a Class 2 pending now.

Pasadena (population 250,000) ordered 18 new rigs. Crosby (population 10,000) ordered 6 fully equipped CAFS rigs and three stations after we went to the voters and asked to become a fire district to drop from a Class 9/10 district wide to a Class 4. Class 6/9/10 Stafford (population 25,000) 3 rigs and lots of fire hydrants, now have a Class 2 district wide with a Class 1 pending. Class 5 Seabrook (population 10,000) was able to get land for a new fire station and an awesome 4000 gpm heavy rescue hose wagon and an increase in capital outlay budget of 6.9 million. Lucus got all new fire hose to make their lousy water system look better.

Many of these departments also took the opportunity of community focus for improved fire services to join the ranks of some of the most technologically advanced departments in the country. Items like complete electronic digital GPS digitally corrected maps indicating all their pre-fire plans and fire hydrants. Electronic accountability systems. Dozens of thermal imagers. Compressed air foam systems. State of the art aerials. All new extrication gear. Every member having a portable radio.

Nearby in Colorado I helped several departments achieve similar success in acquiring apparatus to improve ISO™ scores. Animas (population 10,000) went to the people with a request for 10 million dollars for 21 new rigs, 5 fire stations. In addition, they wanted a half million a year increase in their operating budget. The people said yes, by just 10 votes. Why? Their ISO™ rating if improved would save them all big money. Rattlesnake http://www.geocities.com/Baja/Trails/7873/ (population 3000) went to the voters for a request to buy 3 fully equipped high tech fire engines, fully sprinkle all of their fire stations, add a few cisterns and expand their stations plus add one. Over 92% of the voters voted for the bond. Why did the voters jump on board? Simple, the 100 square mile fire district with one fire hydrant and fire flows to 3000 gpm wanted to drop their ISO™ rating from a Class 9/10 to a Class 5 district wide. That would save every homeowner 200 to 850 dollars a year on their fire insurance. Did Rattlesnake ever get their Class 5? Yep! Berthoud http://www.berthoudfire.org/ (population 25,000) went to the voters with a plan to double the stations and staffing buy 8 all new apparatus and increase all firefighter pay by 37% the first year and 11% the second year. The Cass 5/9/10 district now has a Class 3 district wide pending. The public said go do it. It took just 10 minutes in Loveland (population 40,000) when I wasn’t even on the agenda to get elected officials to authorize two fully equipped pumper tankers on emergency purchase when the elected leaders found out how much money they could save via ISO™. Yes 10 minutes to double their water supply abilities. The decision resulted in the Class 4/6/9 district to get a Cvlass 4 district wide regardless of fire hydrants. Grand Lake FPD(population 6500) went to the people for a bond to buy a 3 million dollar 23,000 square foot fire station with five two bedroom apartments for live in firefighters plus a live-in EMS quarters. In addition, they have 18 new draft points going in to allow water within 1 mile of al properties. To use the water points and fill the districts three fire stations they bought a 110 foot and 75 foot quint, three new 1500 gallon four wheel drive pumper tankers, three 4000 gallon tanker pumpers, a source pumper hose wagon, two four wheel drive rescue pumpers and to refurbish an older pumper into a hose wagon. All the rigs came fully equipped. They literally went from gas motors, commercial non-crew cabs and stick shifts to all wheel drive diesel automatics in one step. Why? One by one homes in the community were being dropped by their carriers when they found out that their insurance agents had included them in better rated areas than they really were. Homeowners found they couldn’t get insurance or couldn’t sell their un-insurable homes. Just one condo complex alone was faced with an increase of $160,000 a year when their insurance carrier dropped them for being in a Class 9 area. One road with 127 homes outside the 5 mile travel ISO™ travel distance was looking at paying 31 million dollars in excessive insurance premiums over the rating period for being Class 10. The station and apparatus would allow them to pay reasonable rates. The departments goal is a Class 5 rating district wide. Currently, only 400 of the districts 6000 residents get any benefit for being in the fire district. The final goal is equal protection for equal taxation. They passed the rural water supply portion of their grade with the new fleet in an artic heavy snow environment and await a district wide rating and lower rates.

Bradley-Properity VFD in West Virginia is in a 7 pumper tanker replacement program this year with their sights on major improvements. Departments like East Bend, North Carolina (population 600) dropped from a Class 9 to a Class 5 in town and immediately set about lowering the towns rating to Class 3 using rural water supply rules. Their short-term goal is a Class 5 in their rural Class 9 areas. By restructuring their debt we were able to order 10,000 feet of 5 inch hose, properly equip all their apparatus, increase the size of their station and buy a pumper tanker all of which greatly improve their fire ground abilities. Another example of restructuring an existing budget was Marion, Virginia (population 5000). The city was willing to let the department stay within its budget but not offer any other financial support. The town allowed the FD to buy five new fully equipped rigs replacing a fleet with an average age of 29 years. In just months they were running two 75 foot quints, a mini pumper a CAFS pumper tanker and a tanker pumper. Imagers, extrication equipment, Turbo Drafts, major flood lights, light masts, 5 inch hose, new protective clothing for every member, light weight high pressure SCBA, squirrel tail suctions were all employed in the purchases.

A lot of folks say, we don’t have the money to chase our ISO™ rating. Those are the kind of places I really enjoying helping. Dolores, Colorado (population 2000) spent just $15,000 to make minor changes to their fleet, spent time practicing a few evolutions and scrounged from bigger cities in the process dropped their rating in town 4 classes and in the rural area 7. A Class 3 district wide within their existing budget in a 400 square mile fire district. Their neighboring larger department decided to wing their rating and got a Class 9 in the rural areas. Kingston, Nevada (population 110) protects 100 square miles with 11 fire hydrants, a hand me down 1957, 500 gpm pumper with 2 ½” hose, a fuel truck that had rolled over and a used water tender. They dropped rating dropped 5 classes and they never spent a penny. The ISO™ grader came in asked a few questions and told the chief he’d no longer be a Class 10. Instead he’d be a Class 9. The chief said, he had hoped to be something better than a Class 9 so the ISO™ grader asked how much water he had on wheels and said he could give him a Class 8. The chief wanted something better than a Class 8. After two days a analysis the department earned a Class 5 district wide. So, what can you do on a $2500 a year budget? Save everyone $300 a year. I was able to apply for two federal fire grants for them and got both using ISO™ savings as the key. The government bought them a new fully equipped pumper and provided 1.2 million for a real water system and 28 fire hydrants. I was able to get grants in 2002 for Grasshopper Valley FPD in Montana and Squaw Valley, Oregon for fully equipped rescue pumpers and they didn’t even have to match the grant. Grass Valley, Imlay, Rye Patch and Silver Peak, Nevada (populations in the 200 to 300 range) all proved money wasn’t essential to drop your ISO rating 2 to 5 classes at a pop. I was able to get Pershing County, Nevada a grant for almost $200,000 to make major improvements in their fire protection. A little more effort by local leaders resulted in a new pumper tanker and fire station grant. If you ever need any help getting funding, lowering your rating or a solution to a rural water need I would be happy to offer some unconventional methods to help you achieve your goals. In many cases your ISO™ needs will allow you to create or find funding sources to attain what you really need.

All this talk about equipment forgets one key reason to exploit the ISO™ game. That is staffing. Berthoud more than doubled staffing and increased their wages almost 50% in 12 months. The city of Houston hired me to tell them how to get a better ISO™ grade and get the 4^th man back on all of there companies that ran with 3 guys. The plan in now in place. I was able to locate 37 million dollars out of another budget that would fund a fourth firefighter on every fire apparatus forever, something even the mighty Tri-Data missed in their review of the community. In 2004 Houston is scheduled to replace every fire truck and ambulance in their fleet, incorporate state of the art technology throughout and do it all within the existing budget. In a one year project Houston dropped from a Class 3 to a Class 1. Their score of 97.01 is the highest score ever attained in a rating. Their Class 9 and 10 un-hydranted county areas now have a Class 1 as well. Houston has 5 times the population and 11 times the area of than any other Class 1 city. In fact 26 of the 40 Class 1 communities population would fit inside Houston simultaneously. They are the largest community ISO™ still grades.

Ann Arbor was faced with the closing of a station, the elimination of a ladder company and reduction in staffing. I was told they are really set on moving forward, in fact it might be hopeless. I put together the ISO™ cost for the reductions which amounted to a 50 million dollar swing in insurance premiums. So what happen? No lay offs, no closings and no reductions. Here is an e-mail from a Union representative after the big city council meeting:

5/23/01

Just wanted to let you know that on Monday night the City council agreed to maintain 26 FF on duty per day staffing 8 companies. I have met with the Union and the Chief of Department regarding the data that you gave me. Both agreed that the ISO™ info that You provided was helpful in deterring cutbacks and closing companies.

Thanks again for your help.

Craig Ferris

AnnArbor FD, MI

I’ve made a number of real close friends in the process. With over 25 years of helping others with their ratings I’ve gathered confidential ISO™ paperwork that is not available to the fire service. I learn a little more after each rating I present to the ISO™ for each fire department. The Field Procedures Manual numbers in the range of 600 pages to explain the 30 pages of the grading schedule that applies to the fire department. There are all kinds of substitution documents and memos detailing what is and what is not acceptable to ISO™. Unfortunately, reading from the grading schedule you’ll have no idea such things are available. Recently, I attended a disputed grade meeting in Texas. For three hours the little volunteers were told no matter what happens at the meeting no grade change could result. On numerous occasions we asked very pointed questions. Then out of the blue we pointed out their mistake, they denied it, then we showed them in their own paper work that they collected from us and they denied they had Next thing we kknew the Class 5 was gone and the Class 4 was in place. Just part of dealing with a monopoly I guess. Of course we weren’t done. We questioned them again, with the vice president of ISO attending the next meeting and a Class 3 was achieved. During that meeting they invented a bunch of Larry Stevens ISOSlAYER rules to address the new ways I do things. So now it is easier for everyone to score better.

Most departments go into the next rating with little or no information on how they got there last rating. Most departments also finish a rating with no clue what was collected or how they did or did not score. Rarely is the fire department officer who conducted the last evaluation still employed due to the 10 to 15 year inspection frequency. ISO™ will provide Improvement Statements and Classifications Details but only if you know you can ask for them. Nothing in the grading schedule tells you there is such a thing to ask for. What the Improvement Statement doesn’t tell you is, it ignores your Class 9 areas. That is any area outside of 1000 feet from a fire hydrant. The generic answers in the Statements rarely point you in the right direction. For example: Hydrants should be within 300 feet for full credit. A hydrant costs $1000 to $3000 a piece. The cost of a load of big hose to get the same credit community wide is $6000 per rig. What makes more sense filling in dozens of hundreds or carrying enough big hose to make the lays? Hose is the obvious choice but you won’t find that in the Statements. Sometimes ISO™ won’t send all the paperwork and the typical chief wouldn’t have a clue something wasn’t sent. One of those forms that was not sent and I asked for in Roswell was the hydrant test sheets and limitations sheets. With those without spending money we were able to get back their Class 3.

Choosing a Consultant

The first rule of getting advice is to ask the consultant what is the ISO™ rating of his department. Not just the city but also their rural areas as well. Don’t take advice from someone from a Class 9 department. Most of the competition out there have Class 4/9 and 2/9 grades. If you are hiring an ex-ISO guy will he know enough about the fire service to actually help your fire department or just get a bit better grade? Check to see where they’ve actually lowered both city and rural ratings using both hydrants and fire department supply. Have they done it lots of times? An expert in city ratings may be of no help to a community without hydrants. Can a paid firefighter relate to the volunteer world? In Houston we used rural water supply ideas to score Class 1 in water in a hydranted area, would a city guy have known how to accomplish that? Would the city guy know how to get Houston a Class 1 in their Class 9 and 10 areas without hydrants? Ask for a list of before and after grades from the consultant. Verify the list of references. Did they actually dothe grades. There are consultants out there who claim my work as theirs even though they worked for ISO™ at the time and I was the actual hired consultant. In some cases you call the chief to verify and he now works for the ex-ISO guy who is now a consultant. Other outfits say they helped such and such who now has such and such a grade. The fact they didn’t do anything that actually helped the department lower their grade (they did a management study and setup a training program) they still claim the grade as a result of their consulting. Of course in that department every firefighter knows I did the grade, presented all the paperwork to the ISO™, did the shuttles and hose lays and was the only person there for the rating doesn’t stop them from saying it was their work. Look for large drops of 3 to 9 class drops at one time. Have they earned any Class 1’s? Have they done it lots of times? Make sure the state the consultant is from uses ISO™, for example Washington and Mississippi do not use the same rating schedule as the rest of the country. Has the consultant demonstrated he can work within your budget as well as gather the funds outside the budget. Ask for a list of who got what (fire trucks, stations, staffing, equpment, water system and communications upgrades) and how long it took. If you intend to use your rates for justification for new apparatus, stations, staffing or water and communication system upgrades make sure the consultant will present his report to the your elected officials. He should be capable of selling your program to the governing body for you. Where has he done that? Has he done that? Also, ask where the consultant has been successful in getting the organizations new fleets of apparatus, stations, people and other upgrades. The consultant should be willing to help you get the grade he says is possible. The consultant should be willing to come back and present your department to the ISO™ and actually attain the grade he said was possible. Most consultants don’t want to be around when ISO™ is in town. Lots of consultants used to work for ISO™. That could be good or bad. Does an ISO™ guy know how to get you a grade or just know what scores what? Is he a firefighter or just a bean counter out of work from ISO™? Most ISO™ guys never gave a Class 1 or 2 grade, would they know how to get there? Almost all of the ex-employees never have done a fire department rural water supply grade. Odds are you will need a technician who can draw on lots of years of actually earning grades not tallying them. It is far easier for the consultant to tell the fire officials you should have done such and such, than to be there defending the department earning the grade. The most fun I have ever had is following another consultant who has told the FD, that if you are really lucky you can earn a Class 5 but the rural area will have to stay a Class 9 and I came out at the end with a district wide Class 3. One time the high profile chief in county who was also the county fire marshal warned several of my clients that, “it doesn’t work that way here, you’re just wasting your money” but a few months later they have the grade promised and the big cheese chief doesn’t. So watch out for the so called local experts who really don’t want you to succeed.

So why did I write this document and distribute it for free? So other departments can put into action those processes that will save their citizens millions and offer better fire and rescue services. I have no clue how many people have read or put this document to use but I seem to talk to or meet someone weekly. One chief called me when ISO™ was in town, we managed to make a few changes over the phone and now they have a Class 1. If you’ve got anything to add to this book let me know I update this thing monthly. Note: If someone from ISO™ or elsewhere infers their system doesn’t work the way this book suggests, rest assured that ISO™ did it somewhere in the U.S. as I described. E-mail me and I’ll tell you where. Every effort has been made to share with you what ISO™ is reluctant to share. Please use and enjoy this document apply it to your own community. Feel free to contact me via email at isoslayer@aol.com or by phone at (800) 595-2600 or my cell phone (775) 224-0476.

Regards,

Larry H. Stevens

P.S. One piece of advice, don’t even consider going through a rating without reading and applying this book first.

It’s ISO™ Time!

Every 10 to 15 years he’s back. The Insurance Services Office guy wants to pay the department a visit real soon. The whole idea of outside independent auditor entering your organization and telling your mayor, city manager or council what kind of job you’re doing can be a real nightmare--especially if you don’t have your act together. When the rating is completed, the ISO™ will send the mayor or manager a breakdown of the new rating and on request, an improvement statement and classification details. These could very well list dozens of embarrassing items where no records are on file to help the fire chief defend himself.

Have you fed the elected officials the facts, or are they in for a surprise? I know of several departments this year that bought fully equipped half million dollar ladder trucks to lower their ratings and only got 16% credit for them. I’ve heard the old, “These nine new guys are going to really help lower our rating.” In fact, they won’t even be noticed.

This ISO™ thing is nothing more than an open book test with three chapters. Communications, water and fire department. You’ve had the book for 10 to 15 years since the last visit. What have you done with it?

Did you list the fire department and business phone numbers to the schedule? Do you have enough phone lines? Is there a backup generator at dispatch and for each station? Do you keep a log book that proves you operate and maintain it under load the ISO™ way? Are there enough operators or do you have call data recording to prove handing time?? Is the communications system supervised and monitored for integrity? If not, the first 10 points might be wasted. The communications standard is written around the NFPA 1221 minimum standards.

Have you even made an effort to solve all the water problems ISO™ located last visit? Did you set a correction plan in motion? If not, look out! Did you have a say in the size of the new wells or tanks? Are fire hydrants placed per code or did they get installed wherever they fell off the truck? Do you know what you need? Is the water authority doing its own thing and leaving you out to dry because you don’t have a working relationship with the community’s best interests in mind? Do you have three years of biannual hydrant test and maintenance records? Are you installing the correct type of hydrants? If you don’t know the answers, check out the 30-pages of the rating schedule that applies to you.

If you don’t have much hydrant coverage, what have you done in the way of shuttles or long lays? Do you know how much water yo need and where you’ll get before the fire? If not why not? Does your boss know you are operating this way? I know a volunteer department that just finished attaining an ISO™ Class 2 without hydrants! Only 1% of all the nations fire departments have Class 2’s with fire hydrants! A Class 9 is nothing more than a brush truck, a very modest equipment list and four firefighters. I bet you have a lot more equipment and people than that but are not getting credit for them. Simply place a station every 5 miles and equip it with a brush truck or a tanker and get an 9 instead of an unprotected 10! There are a lot of departments with 9s with much larger investments in equipment. The question needs to be why? If you’re going to make a larger investment, shoot for a 6 or 7! Set a goal and achieve it!

Does your department spend less time training per month than any of the local softball teams? No wonder your getting gigged. You need to average around 30 hours per month per firefighter for full credit. Do you have the training facilities listed in the schedule? Are pre-fire plans something that only exist in the classroom? No wonder command doesn’t know they have a fire in building with a basement until it’s too late! No wonder stuff stored in the truss space falls and kills firefighters. Of course you ran out of hose, the hydrant spacing does not follow the model codes. It has always been there, but no one is looking out for the home team. Do you have enough pumpers and reserves equipped to the schedule with pump capacity to meet the community fire flow requirements? Do you run a properly equipped ladder company or service company and have a reserve? Do you run two engines and a ladder company on all structure fires? Do your stations offer proper coverage of 1 1/2 miles for the first arriving engine and 2 1/2 miles for a truck? Are any areas outside of 5 miles from a fire station? Do you conduct yearly pump, aerial and hose testing? Do you record it? If not, don’t expect much credit for the apparatus.

What about people? Do you average six paid or 18 volunteers per company on actual structure fire calls? If not, your organization is not big enough! In many communities, you’re going to need that staffing on a minimum of two engines and a truck. That is 18 paid and 54 volunteers actually responding--not total membership. At the very least, staff your rigs to the max.

I know there is a bunch of useless junk in the schedule like $400 hose jackets ($40 each through W.S. Darley) or simply carry a hose clamp for full credit, hose hoists (build your own), lots of pike poles and salvage covers. But having been part of a dinner put on by the U.S. Postal Service honoring my department after a post office fire, I can attest that you might just need the last two. We've all heard learned fire professionals tell us their departments are not driven by the ISO™. But there are no good excuses for a bad ISO™ rating when it is an open book test based upon meeting minimum national standards.

I guess we were lucky or prepared when we dropped from a Class 5 city to a Class 1. Our rural area used to be a Class 9/10 now it is a Class 3 for hundreds of square miles.

It Doesn’t Really Matter?…Doing It For the People

A lot of people say ISO™ doesn’t matter anymore, but do you know that ISO™ writes the language on a majority of the fire insurance policies in this country? If you read your policy, it says the fire department can charge up to $500 to the insurance company for suppression costs on a residential fire. The good news is this does not affect homeowner rates. To collect, you will need a policy number, an insurance carrier and a standard form letter. Send the whole works to the carrier and collect your check. Who says ISO™ doesn’t matter? How many fires did your company respond to last year and not collect money that has been set aside to defer your costs? For fires in businesses, a standard charge of $1,000 to $5,000 will be indicated on the policy. You don’t have to take what is put aside for you if your department already has more money than it can use! You can even bill for responding to areas that are “no man’s land” that is not covered by any fire department.

ISO™ doesn’t matter anymore! Try telling that to the businessmen and women in my community who know that a rate reduction of a Class 7 over an 8 on a $200,000 business is a savings of $760 a year. A drop from an ISO™ rating of 5 to a 4 is a another $420. That savings is every year for 15 years. Multiply the assessed valuation of the businesses in your town and you will get a pretty amazing number. If the fire department gets its records in order, conducts flow tests properly, equips to the minimum standard and goes along with the rest of the ISO™ program its one-time effort and existence for the next 10 to 15 years will ensure savings year after year.

ISO™ doesn’t matter anymore because State Farm pulled out of the ISO™ system. Try telling that to the chief of Rattlesnake, Colorado. Her carrier State Farm lowered her rates when she threatened to go elsewhere. Heck State Farm is just one company. All the rest follow ISO™ one way or the other. It should be every firefighters goal to help put State Farm out of business for not supporting better fire defenses. Even State Farm follows the rating for commercial property. When Odessa Texas hit a Class 2 after years of being a Class 4, here is what the insurance industry had to say to the press: Odessa State Farm agent Barry Smith said the ISO's protection class rating is a "big thing." "It makes the rates go down," Smith said. "Due to the efforts of the fire department, they got the protection class changed in Odessa, which amounts to a lowering of premiums of about $100 a year, and in some instances, $150, depending on the amount of insurance coverage." State Farm spokesman Keith Androff said, “while ISO ratings still play a factor in setting homeowners rates, the company de-emphasized their importance about a year ago.” So, de-emphasized only means 100 to 150 bucks a year, so I guess ISO doesn’t matter anymore?

ISO™ doesn’t matter anymore? Can you imagine the Mayor of Fernley, Nevada who found out he pays an extra $125 a month for fire insurance because he is a few hundred feet too far from a fire station? The ISO rating period to him has a value of $22,500. You can bet he was motivated to get another fully equipped fire station thrown up quickly.

Tell that the to the people of Charlotte, North Carolina. When they compared their ISO Class 3 rates against Greensboro’s Class 1 they found a $212 dollar a month difference between rates on a home of the same value. They were always told Class 1 through Class 6 paid the same rate until they looked into the facts. With 260,000 homes in the city, that 212 bucks becomes 55 million dollars on residential property and 21 million in commercial savings each year! Well, it is only money.

ISO™ doesn’t matter anymore! Tell that to the owner of the Soda Springs Condos in Grand Lake, Colorado. His insurance went up $160,000 a year because his carrier dropped him for not having a creditable water system around his condos. Tell the widow just down the road ISO™ doesn’t matter anymore when her insurance is $1600 more a year on each of her homes living in the Class 10 area versus the Class 6 area of the fire district. Her neighborhood of 127 homes is docked over 31 million dollars because they are too far from a fire station. Her neighbors more often than not are insured by Lloyds of London because no one else wants the risk. Many neighbors cannot sell their homes because the buyers cannot get insurance. How about the realtors and homeowners of Alpine, California when they discovered you couldn’t sell a home or buy one without affordable insurance. A 3000 to 4000 dollar yearly swing would occur if the fire department didn’t get their act together.

ISO™ doesn’t matter anymore! Tell that to the homeowners in my town who talked to their insurance carriers and they told them a drop from their current ISO™ 9 to a 8 saves them $132 a year on their $100,000 frame home. Or a drop from an ISO™ 7 to a 6 is another $119 dollar a year savings. Go to your city or county offices and multiply the number of housing units by $132, $119 or both combined ($251 a year) like we have and see if you get any attention from the elected officials with your $18 to $26 million savings to taxpayers over the rating period.

Don’t be surprised if in 3 days they increase your capital outlay budget from $10,000 to $2,500,000 and ask you during a council meeting, “Are you sure it is enough? You don’t have to take low bid!” See if commissioners will walk up to the chief and say, “I want two new stations up in three months.” Being told sure beats asking! It happened in my town Fallon, Nevada. What a better plank to run on than looking out for the electorate? A volunteer Fire Chief friend in Dallas, Oregon had the city council give him an entire fleet of new fire apparatus after a favorable rating. His boss, the city manager had just wanted to maintain their ISO™ 4 and ended up with a very low 2! The taxpayers of Dolores, Colorado quadrupled the fire department budget after their fire district dropped their rating 7 classes in one step. Grand Lake, Colorado, Annaville and Seabrook, Texas got bonds or tax increases of 5.2, 6.0 and 6.2 million dollars respectively from their taxpayers of to lower the insurance ratings. I can think of dozens of departments who got 10 or more fire trucks to help drop that darn rating. Try telling these departments ISO™ doesn’t matter. The rating is once every 10 to 15 years but the fire equipment, stations and firefighters will be around a lot longer than that doing the job much better than what they owned in the past.

In many communities the fire service is viewed as a bottomless gopher hole that the community pours money down. Isn’t it time to prove the value of the organization? Why do so many fire departments have “ISO™ Class 1, 2, 3 or 4 Fire Department” in big letters on each side of their apparatus? Even a department the size of Los Angeles City has Class 1 Fire Department painted on every unit (even though they are a Class 2) and it has lasted through dozens of chiefs and elected officials. Why is the ISO™ rating listed in almost every chamber of commerce community profile brochure? Independent auditing has value! Isn’t it time to take the time to get what is coming to you?

It Doesn’t Work That Way Here!

What a week of, “it doesn’t work that way here.” It all started at dinner in Texas when the two most senior chiefs from the two largest departments in the county told members of the little Magnolia volunteer department, “nobody in this county can possibly move 250 gpm for two hours.” They went on to say just take your ISO™ Class 9 and 10 and run. That is precisely what their departments were going to do. After all, no other department in the state had ever earned a rural water supply grade. The concept was clear, they went to all the classes on the topic, it was impossible so don’t try. But was it?

So what’s the volunteer chief to do? Heck he was closer in age to 20 than to 30, what could he possibly know. One thing for sure the organization had been working without a master plan, it was time to make one. He also knew Granbury, Texas had just been awarded the impossible, a split grade of Class 3 in town and a Class 6 . (one of the top 35 alternate water supply grades ever given.) for all areas within 5 miles from the station and beyond 1000 feet from a fire hydrant The so called experts said split grades were impossible. So the impossible had in fact occurred in their state. That department used a consultant. It was obvious that it wasn’t the consultants first rodeo. They hired the same consultant.

It wasn’t long before the naysayer’s started attacking what the Magnolia fire department was doing. Who are the naysayers? Typically, members and ex-members of the fire department (who always know better than the current administration), business leaders and insurance salesman.. How dare they map every single building in their several hundred mile county? It wasn’t going to make any difference in there grading. They pre-planned every public and commercial building. They knew the distance from every water point to any building or house in the district. They even took photos of the ponds and made water supply point sheets. They also mapped the drive time from all 23 automatic and mutual aid fire stations in the region who would be likely to give a hand. They also recorded what they carried on their apparatus now. Their research led to determining the needed fire flow for every single building. With everything in a useable form on each rig a universal fire attack plan for the entire district was created.

With that information new apparatus spec’s could be drawn up to solve the fire problem. The fire chief presented the plan to his elected officials and then moved at breakneck speed. Without increasing taxes one cent they would simply dump all the old fire apparatus and restructure their debt so they could replace all the fire trucks and loose equipment in the department. The fact only 3% of the area had hydrants would not be a problem to lowering the rating. The local experts said you need to put in dry hydrants the local FD said no we’ve got a better way. The national ISO™ guys class said three 1500 tankers is the way to go but the FD was going with 3000 gallon jobs. Everyone told them elliptical and vacuum tankers were the only way go not pumper tankers. Of course the national ISO™ teachers couldn’t give an example at the regional classes of any department with a Class 5 or better using small tankers, it was just a theory. Over and over they heard you’re going to lose the town’s Class 6 rating if you keep messing around out in the rural area. The fire chief had the idea everyone pays the same for fire protection, why shouldn’t they receive equal protection?

Over the past year the chief and his band of doers and assistant movers and shakers had purchased an entire fleet of 13 apparatus within the existing budget. Offing a fleet of rigs mainly two to four years old. In many cases instead of taking the highest possible dollar offered they arranged terms so the surrounding FD’s could afford their perfectly good old rigs. Gone was the mismatched fleet of everything ever made under the sun. In its place was a 100% standardized fully equipped fleet designed specifically for the fire problems they faced. Instead of city trucks they now ran rural trucks.

Items like thermal imaging cameras, light weight air packs, squirrel tail hard suctions, pre-connected deck guns, light masts, fixed flood lights, water siphons, pre-plumbed foam, extrication equipment, 4200 feet of 5 inch and 4000 gallons of water was now in every fire station.

When the new apparatus arrived the membership started proving their abilities. They discovered the pumper could in fact get a lift from a lake 350 feet from the rig. Or acces water with a vertical lift of 45 feet using soft hose in just four minutes. There was no need for hard suction hose or dry hydrants for any static source. They proved that any station on any rig could lay 2250 feet of 5 inch hose at 35 mph and flow 1225 gpm in just 3 ½ minutes with just one firefighter. Two firefighters could stretch 4500 feet of hose in just 7 minutes and flow 1050 gpm. They also discovered turning the hydrant on while the pumper laid hose was the most effective means to speed operations and leaving a hydrant man was not a good idea.

Why were those distances so important? Because every commercial building was within those distances of two or more water points. Each arriving station could create flows from 1050 to 1750 gpm. There was no reason to shuttle when you could lay hose. After all, a 5 inch line was worth at least 5 tankers in shuttle. With fire flows to 4000 gpm the department set out to achieve all of them.

There were homes that would be beyond the hose laying abilities of the department. A shuttle would be used in those cases. The worst case would could be addressed with a 1000 gpm shuttle that would exceed the residential fire flow requirements. Of course the experts made it quite clear you can’t fill a tanker very fast with all your 500 gpm hydrants. The members knew they had a way to fill the tankers at 1500 gpm from those hydrants. They knew their 250 gpm mini pumper could fill a tanker at 800 gpm. Many of the ideas they were using weren’t in the IFSTA books but worked perfectly. The goal from day one was to save every homeowner $500 a year on their $80 a year investment in fire protection services by attaining a better ISO™ rating. The department would not do anything that would not make them much more effective on the fire ground.

They found the new rigs could get a draft from a drop tank in less than 20 seconds with one firefighter versus the olds rigs 3 to 4 minutes with 2 to 3 guys. A pumper and a tanker from any station could arrive, place a drop tank, fill it, pull a 200 foot attack line, go to draft and flow water in less than 1 minute and 20 seconds with a crew of four. At each stations worst case fire scenario, they could sustain 400 gpm until the next station arrived to boost the flows.

As they talked with people who had scored well in rural grades in other states they found in many cases there is no brotherhood of firefighters surrounding you. Quite often just jealousy. It was clear you’re doing well was changing the status of someone else. The brotherhood was from other regions and states you’d never work with. The overwhelming theme was the rules for the test you are going to take are hidden and you have no access to them. In fact, you’ll have a tough time finding anyone who ever passed the test. With those heart warming words it was D-Day.

It was clear going into their rating that no one in their state from ISO™ could do the grading so a team from 1500 miles away would conduct the rating. It wasn’t long before three ISO™ inspectors arrived. On the coldest day of the year the department was out there laying hose at 35 mph, shuttling water, filling tankers and proving they could do what they said they could do. The inspectors made it clear they hadn’t ever seen many of the ideas employed and all were creditable.

All they wanted from day one was for the department to prove what they said they could do and then they wanted to measure it. One day the inspectors came in and said the literature on a certain device says you can only flow 400 gpm and that is all they will credit. The department asked, can we show you? The response was if it doesn’t flow the 400 gpm then willhave to record the lower number. In actual use, it flowed 1700 gpm. Not going outside and proving it would have been pretty expensive. The city portion of the rating everyone had warned the department about improved using rural water supply tactics of long hose lays to ponds and shuttles. In fact, if rural water supply evolutions were not used in town the Class 6 would have become a Class 8. The department was now able to supply any commercial building in town to capacity. That wasn’t the case or even close in the past.

There was some silliness that has to be mentioned. The departments brand new aerial ladder would not get full credit even though it was fully equipped. Why? It didn’t have three years of ladder tests. The fact if was impossible to have 3 years of ladder tests on a brand new rig didn’t seem to matter. They had never owned one before so how did the might ISO™ know they would test it? Even though they tested their ladders, pumps, hose and hydrants to the letter of the law? ISO™ cannot trust a department that has its act together in every other record keeping area to do the right thing Life is really amazing. Working inside the ISO™ rules the department was able to prove that a supply line moving just 1000 gpm could in fact supply 1500, 1750 or 2000 gpm out the other end. That a 1500 gpm pumper could move 2400 gpm at draft 200 feet from a water point with a 30 foot lift and not use any hard suction hose.

There are hundreds of great ideas in the fire service that are not getting out to the departments who really need them. The Magnolia Fire department in Montgomery County Texas under the direction of Chief Mike Clack was only the second department in Texas behind Granbury to earn a rural water supply grade. They broke with the norm and did what was right. They earned a district wide Class 3. They beat the naysayer’s by six classes! What is really amazing they had a better score in water supply without hydrants and using volunteers than the city of Houston. In fact, the Houston Chief lived in Magnolia. The city chief even asked the rural chief is the Magnolia grade the same thing as the city rating? Of course it is. A grade is a grade. The city also had a Class 3 at the time! Need a place to start figuring out how to take on ISO™ and win? Start with the departments who are destroying the Grading Schedule and setting all time high scores. Not only does it work that way here, it works that way everywhere!

From a Class 6 to a Class 1

The Frisco, Texas Fire department is a combination organization headed by Chief Mack Borchardt. It covers one of the fastest growing areas of Texas. Their thorough understanding of ISO™ rules and bringing in a consultant made the difference of accepting their new Class 3 from their old Class 5 offered to them at the ISO™ exit interview and the Class 1 they were finally awarded. Rarely does any department drop five classes at one time, but Frisco did! With a population of 39,200 Frisco is one of the smallest communities to ever earn an Class 1. Only 42community’s nationwide out of 44,870 have Class 1’s. Two of those are held by volunteer fire departments.

The Fire Chief made sure city officials recognized the economic benefits of a better rating and began upgrading the city’s infrastructure to meet the demands of rapid growth, beginning with the raising of water pressure in low-pressure water areas. New fire stations were built and apparatus added to speed response to emergencies. Career and volunteer firefighters staff the stations and train together regularly at the department’s training center. With the neighboring Plano having a Class 1 it was essential that Frisco have the same grade to compete for business. Commercial properties faced at least a 7% higher insurance burden to do business in Frisco over the neighboring city. A whopping 40% difference was being paid per residence. The cost city wide of doing nothing was $164,500 a month in excessive insurance premiums for homeowners.

The benefits to the citizens of a dropping from a Class 6 to a Class 1 in Frisco are as follows. When Frisco had a Class 5 rating a $225,000 home paid $522 a year for insurance. That same home today pays $317. That is a savings of $205 every year for the next 10 years. Ratepayers will save more than $2 million a year just for residential property.

The fire department currently saves the citizens more than $5 million a year on an investment of just $3.1 million dollars in fire protection services. The department returns more than it takes. Over the rating period the department will save the citizens at least $47.2 million dollars.

If you think going from a Class 5 to a 1 is something, Frisco much smaller neighbor and my client Wylie dropped from a Class 6 to a Class 1 in one step,. A few others, Fallon, Nevada 5 to a 1, Stafford, Texas 5 to a 1, The Meadows, Texas 6 to a 1 and Stafford Harris/Fort Bend County Texas OPA 9/10 to a 1. So you see it is not a one time thing.

RESIDENTIAL RATE CHART

Class Rate Savings Class Rate Savings

1 $1.41 0% 6 $2.81 -13%

2 $1.41 -26% 7 $3.22 -14%

3 $1.91 -14% 8 $3.73 -14%

4 $2.22 -5% 9 $4.27 -14%

5 $2.32 -7% 10 $4.81 0%

Totals $3.40 -341%

*add $.90 for small mercantile

Source: Dwelling table A from the Texas Department of Insurance Bulletin B-0028-00, 1 year base fire rate per $1,000.00 of coverage for a wood frame home

COMMERCIAL RATE CHART

Class Rate Savings Class Rate Savings

10 $2504 0% 5 $1915 -3%

9 $2331 -7% 4 $1857 -4%

8 $2033 -13% 3 $1830 -2%

7 $1997 -2% 2 $1808 -2%

6 $1964 -2% 1 $1783 -1%

Totals $721 -28.7%

Source: According to the SCOPES Manual a $274,000 unsprinkled masonry wood frame 3 story restaurant would pay:

What is State Farm Up To?

State Farm Fire and Casualty Company (State Farm), the nation’s largest homeowners insurer, is proposing no longer use of ISO™ Public Protection Class(PPC) grades. This grade traditionally influences local premiums.

That is all true, however, they still use ISO rates for businesses, churches, schools and commercial property

State Farm will be using its own loss experience to set rates. State Farm’s Mike Wey, vice president-underwriting says, “will allow the company to be more responsive to actual claim cost trends within a particular area, reduce operating costs and save customers money.”

Many fire departments have come to depend on PPC grades to encourage more spending on fire protection. But State Farm says, “good firefighting will continue to be reflected in State Farm’s rates.” In fact, Wey says, “it’s just as critical to the new rating factor.” “State Farm values good public and volunteer firefighting because it helps protect our policyholders and their homes,” he says. “Effective local fire protection will be reflected in our claim experience and thus our premiums.”

The Insurance Services Office (ISO™) is responsible for maintaining Public Protection Class grades. Wey says, State Farm appreciates the job ISO™ has done. “Without their work up to this point, we would not be able to take this step,” he says. The State Farm customers will not see a change in their premiums. This new factor will generally result in small premium decreases or increases for a few.

Geographic areas including zip codes with similar expected claim and expense costs will generally define the rating factor, which will use the local area’s insured loss history to predict future losses. State Farm says the new rating factor is already in place in almost every state The company hopes to implement it in other states, including Illinois over a period of months as regulatory approval is received.

State Farm writes 23% of the nation’s home insurance. In most cases, state legislatures decide the methodology employed to determine rates. In Texas for example there is a common percentage spread from top to bottom on all policies written in the state. All insurance policies start and end at a different dollar amounts but the difference remains constant in percentage terms. State legislatures and the market regulate business in the US. One carrier pulling out or trying to pull out of the ISO™ system isn’t likely to make any difference. What is a bit scary is there will be no way for the fire department to take constructive action to improve rates from the citizens of their community insured by a carrier who pulls out of the ISO™ system. Plus a small town with a large loss could effect the entire zip code region for years. Can you imagine the long term effects of a major wildland fire, earthquake, hail storm or riot?

Let’s not forget what State Farm executive vice president Don Sullivan published just a few short years ago, “We believe that homeowners who support improvements in fire protection through their tax dollars should be rewarded with lower insurance rates.” Let State Farm know you support their original position not a system of mixing you in with mediocre departments in your region. If someone calls your department to ask the ISO grade in the area, ask them what insurance company they are with. Suggest they shop around. In a rural area let them know Farmers offers 6 mile coverage from a station unlike their current carrier. That could include hundreds of additional homes in your district who can get an insurance break based on your station location.

So what will State Farm really do in a market economy? This recent news report says it all. Improvements made to the Odessa Fire Department in the past few years should save city and county residents millions of dollars in reduced homeowners insurance premiums during the next decade, the fire chief says. OFD Chief Steve Pollock said improvements in fire fighter staffing, station location, department record keeping, dispatch services, fire hydrant upgrades and hose and pump maintenance helped raise the department's protection class rating from a 4 to a 2.

Put in context, only 30 of Texas' 1,800 fire stations carry the same rating, he said. "The majority of your fire departments will rate in a class 6 or 7 or 9." The Insurance Services Office Public Protection Class rating, which covers 10 years, takes effect in April 1, Pollock said. The ratings boost could reduce homeowners insurance rates as much as 9 percent annually citywide, Pollock said.

For example, the owner of an $80,000 home could save about $10 annually over the life of the rating, he said. Spread across 31,600 homes, the rating improvement represents a "significant savings." "Multiply (31,600) by $102 and that's, what? $3.2 million a year that the community saves on fire insurance," Pollock said. "And multiply that by a 10-year rating, well, that's $32 million." Homeowners will be eligible for the lower insurance rates after April and at the time their current policy renews, Pollock said.

Odessa State Farm agent Barry Smith said the ISO's protection class rating is a "big thing." "It makes the rates go down," Smith said. "Due to the efforts of the fire department, they got the protection class changed in Odessa, which amounts to a lowering of premiums of about $100 a year, and in some instances, $150, depending on the amount of insurance coverage."

There are far too many differences between the levels of fire services offered in this country to allow averaging via zip code or geography. For every department who has addressed their water supply challenges with large diameter hose and shuttles there are hundreds who have not. The same is true for cities running top flight properly equipped apparatus and those running junk. There are many towns who cannot staff a rig during the day running next to departments who properly man their apparatus. Training is non-existent one place and meeting national standards the next. Some how I doubt the Class 9 department has anything in common with the Class 4 department. Who wants to be averaged with the department down the road whose primary purpose is to be the local bar or social club? The whole concept seems un-American.

Is State Farms pull out of a few states the way of the future for the insurance industry? According to Dennis N. Gage of ISO™, “There is absolutely no truth to the statement that ISO™ is abandoning the Public Protection Classification program. On the contrary, we most emphatically proclaim our commitment to the 45,000 municipalities and fire districts throughout the United States and to the U.S. property/casualty insurance industry to continue the program as we continue to enhance it.

Your community benefits and will continue to benefit by participating in the program and so will the residents in your community whose insurance premiums are related to the quality of your community's fire-suppression capabilities. The insurance industry, which pays for this program, has long understood that better fire protection means better fire safety, lower fire losses and, of course, lower insurance premiums.”

ISO™ Differences Between States

Question: I moved from one coast to another to be fire chief only to find some interesting variations in the ISO™ grading schedule. Isn’t the Grading Schedule supposed to offer equality, the basis for all laws and standards?

Answer: The world is unfair. The good news is the rules coast to coast are 99.99% the same. Unfortunately, the guy doing the grading changes from place to place. Normally an ISO™ offers communities two ratings. One is based upon property within 5 road miles of a fire station and within 1000 feet of a fire hydrant. The other is outside of 1000 feet of a hydrant within 5 road miles of the responding station. Normally the second grade is a Class 9. Beyond 5 miles a Class 10 applies. However that isn’t always the case. New Jersey and Texas also credit a usable suction point as a fire hydrant where the rest of the states do not.

Only few hundred fire departments (mostly in Wisconsin and almost always volunteer) have proven they can shuttle or relay water and consequently have had the 1000 foot hydrant distance waved. Their hydrants are credited to 5 road miles from the responding station. One department offers a Class 1 community and a Class 3 rural area. Others offer Class 3’s, 4’s, 5’s, 6’s, 7’s and 8’s district wide. All departments have the option using Fire Department Supply (FDS) to get the same variance from the rules based upon witnessed flow demonstrations. For some reason even the most capable departments never attempt to get the better grade or exception to the rule.

It used to be that Alaska, Arizona, California, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah credit for a Class 9 dwelling goes to 10 road miles from a responding fire station. Many grades still are based on those old rules that changed April 1^st 2003. Where the majority of the U.S. gets 19.6 square miles of coverage per station whereas the listed states get 78.54 square miles per station. Now only California gets a Dwelling 8 rating that actually changes insurance rates versus the new 8b that does not. In addition, only California get 10 mile Class 9 coverage.

Ohio holds the ISO™ rating to 5 miles and 6 road miles 28.2 square miles for dwelling properties.

West Virginia offers a Class 8 out to 6 miles if a hydrant is within 1000 feet. If the hydrant is further than 1000 feet a Class 9 applies out to 6 miles.

Wisconsin offers credit to 6 miles for Class 9’s.

Kansas offers a 5 and 10 mile Farm Property rating that no other state offers. In a nutshell if you have 500 gallons of water and meet all the Class 9 requirements you get 5 mile farm credit. If you have 1500 gallons of water carried on two rigs with 500 minimum per rig, a 250 gpm pump, the ability to transfer water to the pumper, a gated wye and carry 800 feet of additional fire hose over the Class 9 requirement you get 10 mile credit.

Six western states (had until April 1^st 2003 a special rule that is no longer available, Alaska, Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and Utah) also got relief 43 other states did not receive. They did not have to move 250 gpm for 2 hours which requires a 30,000 gallon water supply like everyone else. They got the Western States Dwelling Class 8 that applies only to dwellings if they have 4000 gallons of water on wheels and a Class A pumper. The first unit must be no further than 5 miles from the property protected and the balance of the apparatus within 8 road miles. Five firefighters must respond. If they proved 200 gpm for 20 minutes beginning within 5 minutes of the arrival of the first fire apparatus and flow without interruption they earned a Dwelling Class 8. The Dwelling 8 applies from 0 to 5 road miles from the responding station a full 19.6 square miles. Those six states also offer a Class 9 to cover where the 8 leaves off all the way from the 5 mile limit out to 10 miles, a whopping 78.54 square miles versus the rest of the countries 19.6 square miles. These rules were all in effect before ISO took over the Pacific Rating Bureau. On April 1^st 2003 five western stated effectively had their stations ISO coverage reduced by 75% and insurance premiums increased from Class 9 to Class 10 in 75% of their stations response district and others saw their Class 8’s become 9’s and the increase in rates that goes with it. Almost no one in the fire service knows it even happened. Only California still has the dwelling in effect.

Some insurance companies only require 2500 gallons for a Class 8 rating. Some insurance companies offer a suburban rating to make up for the lack of Dwelling 8 offered in other states. It works like this. If a suburban risk is currently assigned to protection class 9 or dual protection classes (i.e. 4/9) and the risk meets all the following criteria, the risk may be rated using protection class 8 or the lower of the dual number classifications.

Risk is within 5 road miles of a responding fire department.
Risk is visible by at least four other homes;
Paved public roads lead to the risk;
Risk is accessible to fire equipment year round;
Responding fire department has a tanker truck carrying at least 2000 gallons of water;
Risk is less than 40 years old; and
Risk does not have a wood burner present.

In New Mexico a Class 8B exists that is now nationwide. It recognizes rural fire protection services over a Class 9. A 8B means the department has some water hauling ability that is less than the 250 gpm requirement for 2 hours required for a Class 8 or better Eventually community loss statistics in these areas rated 8B could result in an insurance break. A 8B requires scoring 5 points in communications and 20 points in Fire Department. The department must respond with an average of 6 firefighters to structure fires. Conduct 24 hours of training per firefighter per year. The first out pump capacity has to be at least 250 gpm at 150 psi. The department must demonstrate the ability to flow 200 gpm uninterrupted for 20 minutes within 5 minutes of arrival of the first fire truck in 85% of the response area within 5 miles of the fire station. Automatic aid companies can be used. The down side is until ISO™ collects several years of loss experience their will be no reduction in premiums.

North Carolina puts some big time requirements on a fire department to be a Class 9,or as they call it a Class 9S. Why? The state has a retirement system for volunteers. In order to qualify you must meet the states rules. Instead of requiring 4 firefighters for a Class 9 they require 20 personnel. Twelve on average must respond to the last 20 structures fires prior to the rating. Each substation must add 8 additional firefighters of which 4 on average must respond. They also require 48 hours of drills versus the rest of states 12 hours. They require weight tickets on the apparatus, current pump tests, monthly equipment checks and complete certified protective clothing. Instead of a brush truck with 50 gpm pump and 300 gallon tank requirement they insist on two pieces of apparatus one pumper with a 500 or larger pump and 500 gallon or larger tank. The second rig needs to be a tanker with a 1000 gallon tank. They want three 150 foot preconnected lines (two 1 ½” and a booster or three 1 ½” lines) with nozzles where as ISO™ elsewhere only wants 250 feet of any size hose to be carried and one nozzle. They also want a few items not on the Class 9 list used every where else: 4 air packs, two 10 foot hard suction hoses large enough to supply the pump to capacity, 100’ feet of ½” rope, two shovels and a first aid kit. North Carolina shows they are serious about minimum capabilities of their fire departments. North Carolina grades communities every 5 years whereas the rest of the US is on a 10 or 15 year schedule. North Carolina rating cover 6 road miles from a station versus the normal 5 miles.

Louisiana has state rules that allow 3 bonus points for approved training and 2 points for prevention and education. In other words, they have a 05 point schedule. So a department who scores a class 3 but gets the extra points could end up with a Class 2.

Texas awards 6.5 points extra credit beyond the 100 point schedule training, adoption of a model fire code, in service inspections, staffing of the fire prevention and inspection offices, plans review, prevention, public education, arson investigation and responding with a compressed air foam pumper on all structure fires. All in all with divergence credit it is possible to score 11 extra points in Texas.

If a Class 9 fire department is within 10 road miles they will receive a Crop Protection Class of 1. The units must be off road capable and the organization must have three apparatus two of which must be capable of pump and roll.

The excuse ISO™ uses for all the variations is those were the rules at the time they adopted the rating schedule. Texas adopted the schedule 2 years ago and is the only state with extra credit. Any of the above that do not apply in your state are costing your taxpayers dearly in increased fire insurance premiums. It is essential you let your state legislatures and insurance boards know that the playing field is not level. Demand the same benefits the other states enjoy.

Legislative Support

The state of New Mexico funds departments through the state fire marshal’s office based upon their ISO™ ratings. The incentive program should encourage departments to improve their ratings and lower insurance premiums in the community. For example in 2000, a Class 10 department gets $24,460 a year whereas a Class 1 department would get $58,245 per year plus @21,584 per substation. Albuquerque draws $423,741 yearly. Smaller cities like Roswell receive $161,871. Over $32 is budgeted yearly. How is all this funded? Through a hold back of fire insurance premiums paid in the state. Unfortunately only 50% of that is used by he fire service. The unused balance is returned to the state general fund.

Unfortunately you can lead a horse to water butt you can’t make him wash. One department has received over $500,000 and is still a Class 10. All that is needed to be a Class 9 is a brush truck and 4 firefighters and a place to park the vehicle. It seems obvious, if the fire service will not do the same thing then someone on the outside should mandate the use of the funds. The state does offer a two edged sword. They can shut down fire departments who do not perform.

So how well does the whole system work? There are 329 departments, of which 40 Class 10’s, 131 Class 9’s mainly in communities without water systems, three departments who’ve achieve rural water supply ratings via shuttles, a small number through hose lays and relays, 33 Class 8’s, and the best rating in the state is a Class 3. Let your state fire chiefs and firefighters associations and state legislatures get a load of the following distribution formula.

ISO™ ISO™

CLASS MAIN SUBSTATION CLASS MAIN SUBSTATION

1. $58,245 $21,584 6. $41,007 $14,388

2. $53,957 $20,145 7. $38,848 $13,670

3. $49,641 $18,705 8. $36,691 $12,950

4. $45,323 $17,266 9. $27,338 $10,797

5. $43,164 $15,827 10. $24,460 None

FIRE FLOWS & BATCH REPORTS

Question: How do we know before the ISO™ gets here what our needed fire flow requirements are? Is there a simple way to figure them?

My Answer: Step one, call ISO™ and get a copy of your Batch Report directly from the ISO™. The number is at the back of this book. It will list a number of structures in your community and the fire flows will already be calculated. If not simply calculate using the fire flow sheet. Try to calculate the 25 largest structures in the community and/or around each station.

Most one and two family homes not over two stories in height fall into the following flow ranges. If the structure is over 100 feet from other structures the needed fire flow is 500 gpm, if structures are 31 to 100 feet apart the fire flow is 750 gpm, 11 to 30 feet 1000 gpm and 10 feet or less the fire flow required is 1500 gpm. If wood shake roofs on exposed buildings add 500 gpm to the fire flow. Get this, ISO™ will not credit residential sprinkler systems. So all those large homes you thought you’d do the right thing and require a NFPA system, you’re going to get hit with a commercial building fire flow on all of them.

In a hauled water or long hose lay grading expect ISO to look at the four or five largest buildings around each station that are close to five miles away from each station and all the buildings requiring more than 3500 gpm.

Fire Flow Sheet

1. Determine the ground floor area length time width ___________sq. Ft. and get the square root of the area ______ and multiply by 18 equals _______ then multiply by

2. Determine the type of construction then multiply by

Fire resistive C = 0.6 Non-combustible C = 0.8

Ordinary C = 1.0 Wood Frame C = 1.5

3. Credit surcharge for type of occupancy then multiply by:

.75 Mostly non-combustible contents.

.85 Limited combustibles, apartments, schools, churches, hospitals.

1.0 Mostly combustible, restaurants, sheds, garages.

1.15 Free burning contents, post offices, horse stables, feed mills,

repair garages, ag storage.

1.25 Rapid burning, aircraft hangers, tires, flammable liquids, wood working.

4. Exposures each side, not to exceed 75%

a. 0 to 10 feet add 25% per side exposed

b. 11-30 feet add 19% per side

c. 31-60 feet add 14% per side

d. 61-100 feet add 9% per side

Wood shingle charge add 500 gpm

5. Round off to the nearest 250 gpm for flows less than 2500 gpm the nearest 500 gpm for flows above 2500 gpm.

6. Fire flow for each floor above the ground floor are calculated at 50%.

Total Fire Flow =__________ gpm

This following charts will help you quickly calculate the needed fore flows in your community. Simply determine the construction type, pick the appropriate chart and the square footage of the structure will indicate the fire flow. Example: 1000 square foot wood frame barn needs 750 gpm.

Wood Frame Construction

Square Feet of Building Needed Fire Flow Square Feet of Building Needed Fire Flow

0 sq ft to 950 sq ft 500 gpm 11,001 sq ft to 13,750 sq ft 2250 gpm

951 sq ft to 1,850 sq ft 750 gpm 13,751 sq ft to 16,800 sq ft 2500 gpm

1,851 sq ft to 3,100 sq ft 1000 gpm 16,801 sq ft to 20,150 sq ft 2750 gpm

3,101 sq ft to 4,600 sq ft 1250 gpm 20,151 sq ft to 23,800 sq ft 3000 gpm

4,601 sq ft to 6,450 sq ft 1500 gpm 23,801 sq ft to 27,750 sq ft 3250 gpm

6,451 sq ft to 8,550 sq ft 1750 gpm 27,751 sq ft to 32,050 sq ft 3500 gpm

8,551 sq ft to 11,000 sq ft 2000 gpm 32,051+ sq ft 3500 + gpm

Add 500 gpm to the above for wood shake shingles.

Ordinary Construction

Square Feet of Building Needed Fire Flow Square Feet of Building Needed Fire Flow

0 sq ft to 2,150 500 gpm 24,751 sq ft to 30,950 sq ft 2250 gpm

2,151 sq ft to 4,200 sq ft 750 gpm 30,951 sq ft to 37,800 sq ft 2500 gpm

4,201 sq ft to 6,950 sq ft 1000 gpm 37,801 sq ft to 45,350 sq ft 2750 gpm

6,951 sq ft to 10,350 sq ft 1250 gpm 45,351 sq ft to 53,550 sq ft 3000 gpm

10,351 sq ft to 14,500 sq ft 1500 gpm 53,551 sq ft to 62,500 sq ft 3250 gpm

14,501 sq ft to 19,300 sq ft 1750 gpm 62,501 sq ft to 72,100 sq ft 3500 gpm

19,301 sq ft to 24,750 sq ft 2000 gpm 72,101+ sq ft 3500+ gpm

Add 500 gpm to the above for wood shake shingles.

Noncombustible Construction

Square Feet of Building Needed Fire Flow Square Feet of Building Needed Fire Flow

0 sq ft to 3,350 sq ft 500 gpm 38,701 sq ft to 48,350 sq ft 2250 gpm

3,351 sq ft to 6,550 sq ft 750 gpm 48,351 sq ft to 59,050 sq ft 2500 gpm

6,551 sq ft to 10,850 sq ft 1000 gpm 59,051 sq ft to 70,850 sq ft 2750 gpm

10,851 sq ft to 16,200 sq ft 1250 gpm 70,851 sq ft to 83,700 sq ft 3000 gpm

16,201 sq ft to 22,600 sq ft 1500 gpm 83,701 sq ft to 97,600 sq ft 3250 gpm

22,601 sq ft to 30,100 sq ft 1750 gpm 97,601 sq ft to 112,600 sq ft 3500 gpm

30,101 sq ft to 38,700 sq ft 2000 gpm 112,601+ sq ft 3500+ gpm

Fire Resistive Construction

Square Feet of Building Needed Fire Flow Square Feet of Building Needed Fire Flow

0 sq ft to 5950 500 gpm 68,801 sq ft to 85,950 sq ft 2250 gpm

5,951 sq ft to11,650 sq ft 750 gpm 85,951 sq ft to 105,000 sq ft 2500 gpm

11,651 sq ft to 19,250 sq ft 1000 gpm 105,001 sq ft to 125,950 sq ft 2750 gpm

19,251 sq ft to 28,800 sq ft 1250 gpm 125,951 sq ft to 148,800 sq ft 3000 gpm

28,801 sq ft to 40,200 sq ft 1500 gpm 148,801 sq ft to 173,550 sq ft 3250 gpm

40,201 sq ft to 53,550 sq ft 1750 gpm 173,551 sq ft to 200,200 sq ft 3500 gpm

53,551 sq ft to 68,800 sq ft 2000 gpm 200,201+ sq ft 3500+ gpm

Receiving and Handling Alarms

Question: What is needed in dispatch to maximize points?

My Answer: Ten percent of the entire rating points are in Receiving and Handling Alarms. Unlike the Fire Department and Water Supply sections there isn’t any divergence associated with the category. What you earn you keep. It is essential the fire department communicate with whoever is in charge of dispatch and insure you can score all the points in this category.

The points are divided into three areas 1) telephone service, 2) operators and 3) dispatch circuits. NFPA 1221 is the reference for this portion of your grading and the schedule breaks items down for individual point credit.

Telephone service determines the public’s ability to report a fire. A community of less than 40,000 needs 1 fire and 1 business line. A population of 40,001 to 125,000 needs 2 of each 125,000 to 300,000 needs 3 of each and over 300,000 you’ll need 4 fire and 3 business lines. If your dispatch center handles other emergency calls besides fire you must double the number of fire phone lines. If detailed information is transferred from one dispatch to another subtract 20 points. A town of less than 40,000 would need two fire lines and one business line for full credit. Having the correct number of fire and business lines is worth 25% credit each. If only the fire number is listed in the phone book you only get credit for the fire line. In other words you’ll lose 25% credit. If a fire call comes in and the fire line or lines are busy and the phone system will automatically rollover to a business line you’ll get additional 10% credit in the category unless you have too many lines then you’ll get the 10% anyway. If a call has to go through multiple communications centers subtract 20%.

If your fire department emergency phone number is listed inside the front cover of the phone book with your department and city name listed add 10%. If both the emergency number and business number are properly listed, “To report a fire” and “For all other purposes” under “Fire Department” add 5%. If both numbers are properly listed under the city name add 5% more. Listing should look like this:

F pages

Fire Department Marion To report a fire 911

For all other purposes (234) 239 2302

M Pages

Marion Fire Department To report a fire 911

For all other purposes (123) 239 2302

If individual station numbers are listed subtract 10%. If dispatch records all emergency and business phone lines and provides instant playback add 20%. Add up your totals and multiply the percentage times 2 points. XYZ Fire Rescue got 60%. Take 60% times 2 equals 1.2 points out of a possible 2 in telephone service.

NFPA 1221 states how many operators need to be on duty based upon the number of calls entering the facility. One dispatcher is needed for communications centers running more than 600 and less than 2501 calls per year. For 2501 to 10,000 calls per year, two dispatchers are needed. Over 10,000 calls per service per year requires 3 operators and 2 other operators plus a supervisor.

If you have call data reporting (CDR) software that can provide one years worth of computer logs for ISO’s inspection proving your on duty staff answers 95% of all 911/emergency calls in 30 seconds and never more than 60 seconds. In other words, does someone say “hello” on the 911 phone. Plus you have proof that dispatch of emergency equipment occurs within 60 seconds of call capture and there is no time limit for call capture. If you can prove those two times you can have fewer operators and still get full credit. If you can tract call ring, call answer, disconnect and encoder function you can get CDR credit. If something unusual skews the data an explanation of the unusual event will suffice.

Points are totaled as follows. Number of operators on duty times 80 divided by the number of needed operators. XYZ has 5 operators and needs 6. So 5 times 80 equals 400 divided by 6 equals 66.66% credit for operators. By taking the number of operators allowed to sleep times 20 divided by number awake. XYZ has four daytime operators that are not allowed to sleep but the night operator is. So 4 operators awake times 20 equals 80 divided by 5 operators equals 16% credit for operator awake. Add 16% plus the 66.66% above for the number of operators to get 82.66% credit times 3 points equals 2.47 points out of a possible 3 points in the category. Have your dispatcher and supervisor work hours, vacation hours and sick hour records available for ISO review. In addition, have a current shift schedule available.

NFPA 1221 spells out the number of needed dispatch circuits. A close examination of the grading schedule will also provide point totals for less compliant options to the standard. If your department is volunteer and runs less than 600 alarms per year a voice pager is all that is needed for maximum credit 40%. If you run more than that, you need two duplicate circuits for full credit. In other words if you are volunteer with more than 600 calls, you’ll need two voice pagers or a voice pager and a portable radio. Digital alpha pagers do not count. Dispatch will need to broadcast on two channels for full credit. In a career department two channels and two channel ability into the stations or a fax machine or a pager in a charger wired to a speaker is all that is needed in a career station to backup the base radio. If each member wears a voice pager that will serve as a backup second circuit. If the primary transmitter system at dispatch should fail it should automatically switch over to a backup and provide the operator with a visual and audible signal. That is called circuit supervision and is worth 30%.

ISO’s new term monitoring for integrity requires that fully automated systems to sense any system fault in receiving or transmitting an alarm and all of its components by sending an audible and visual signal to the supervisors station that is always staffed or visible to others always in the room. If additional faults occur they too should be able to sound a silenced previous alarm.

Systems needing to be monitored are the power supply, emergency power supply to the center and remote transmitter/repeater sites, controller, no single point failure will take any part of the system down. Duplicate transmitters, antennas, lines (radio, microwave, T!) from the transmitters to the antennas, are needed to take over for a failed console (System Watch Site Lens and MOSCAD Fault Management works well). Stations or volunteers also need duplicate notifications systems (Ztron works well for paid stations.

Supervision Check list:

*Is the power and circuit supervised to all wired, radio and telephone circuits?

*Do they all have visual and audible trouble signals?

*Is there someone present to receive the signals?

*Do radios have duplicate transmitters?

*Can the transmitters be switched in less than 30 seconds or can the operator go sit at another radio?

*When the dispatcher tries to transmit and the transmitter is down, does he or she see a screen come up indicating the system is down, hear a tone, etc?

*When the generator is running is there visual and audible indication?

*If your remote repeater sites are on remote generator will the system notify the dispatch center?

*If the alarm for any indication is silenced, if another signal comes in for another fault, will the alarms indicate?

*If your stations use a Zetron the answer to the station portion is yes.

*If dispatch has Moss Cad the answer to almost everything is yes.

*The answer to all these questions needs to be yes to get credit.

If all radio transmissions are automatically recorded add 10%. A manual or automatic generator should be provided. It should be tested weekly under load, records of those tests recorded and a maintenance log maintained. Have a copy of the maintenance log for ISO inspection. Your station generators need the same thing in paid departments. If you do all of these things the backup generator is worth an additional 20%. To calculate credit simply add up all the percentage earned and multiply by 5 points. XYZ got 50%. So 50% times 5 equals 2.5 points out of a possible 5.

A careful read of NFPA 1221 will provide some electronic options to operators. By having the right automation in place you will be able to prove how long it takes to handle. As a result call fewer operators will be needed than what ISO™ suggests. Identify the needed upgrades in the communications center, fire stations and phone books. Get a plan in motion to address them and budget accordingly.

WATER SUPPLY

Question: What is ISO looking for in the water portion of the grade?

Answer: They are looking to see if you can match the needed fire flows of the buildings in your town with the water system in the form of flows, hydrant spacing and supply. In addition, they want to make sure you are testing and maintaining it to the national standards.

When you look around town, does it appear the hydrants were placed wherever they fell off the truck? There are specific codes that spell out spacing, flows and placement, but were they used in your town, or did the expert in planning and prevention or the chief’s office make all of these decisions off the cuff?

The Insurance Service Office (ISO™) rates your whole community on the placement and performance of as few as three hydrants. You can expect them to test between 3 and 7 percent of your hydrants.

The way you flow test your hydrants, therefore, could cost you millions in unnecessary insurance premiums. It is essential you understand they are looking for a water main test not a fire hydrant test. A given hydrant can be ISO™ rated at either 800 gpm or 2,500 gpm for instance.

The fire department is the only branch of government that saves everyone in the community money just by existing. Even if its crews don’t have a clue how to do their jobs. The guy down the road, for instance, who uses booster reels on all fires, doesn’t own a pre-connect attack line or deck gun and never heard of quick water, but runs the best beer drinking social club in the area, watches movies for training, doesn’t have EMTs or paramedics, runs 1950 fire trucks, but keeps good records probably has a better ISO™ rating than you! In spite of his service level, his community at least benefits through lower insurance rates.

Every town is rated by the ISO™ 1980/1998 edition of the Fire Suppression Rating Schedule on a scale of 1 to 10: 1 is the best and 10 is the worst. The efficiency of its water system normally makes up 40 percent of a community’s rating: if it is out of balance with the fire department, it could cost the community up to half of its rating.

The ideal way to insure a good grade is to take the 25 largest structures around each fire station and create a water supply plan. Calculate a rough needed fire flow using the formula square root of ground floor square footage times 21 = gpm. Do what ever is needed to match the needed fire flows, including flowing hydrants on other larger mains away from the structures that will require large diameter hose lines supplied by a pumper at the hydrant. If that is the plan you need to flow those distant hydrants at the same time as the close hydrants.

Codes and Standards

What is balance? Is the water system to code? The American Water Works Association (AWWA), various regional model fire codes, the American Insurance Association (AIA) and the ISO™ all spell out clearly what they are looking for in a water system. Follow any one of these codes and you cannot go wrong. In general, a hydrant needs to be conspicuous and within 1,000 feet of the property it is supposed to protect. All hydrants need a large pumper outlet to make full use of the flow potential and they each need a 6” or larger branch. All hydrant nuts should turn in the same direction and be the same size, as well as share the same thread.

The model fire codes are quite specific about which authority has jurisdiction over the water system, as it applies to fire protection: the fire chief or his delegate. But you can spell out the type, threads, model and style fire hydrants you choose. I like the twin 4 1/2” port polished chrome or polished brass beauties with Storz connections and caps with cables. You can spec a 3’ by 3’ concrete pad, with the center port of the hydrant at least as high as the length of your hydrant wrench.

The fire codes all spell out fixed flows, formulas and charts that will help you figure out the fire flow for a property. Sometimes it is as simple as for a one- and two-family dwelling: The flow will be 1,000 gpm if the dwelling does not exceed 3,600 square feet. Once the fire flow is determined, another chart will tell you how many hydrants are required. That same chart will also tell you the average distance between hydrants, which is based on one hydrant per 1,000 gpm of fire flow required (with spacing somewhere 100’ to 500’, depending on flow). The code also spells out that hydrants should alternate every 250’ on streets with center medians. On streets without construction, hydrant spacing will not be less than 1,000 feet. The code also provides the maximum distance from the hydrant to any point on a street or road 70’ to 250’ depending on flow. According to the code, a 150’ preconnected attack line and a soft suction hook up is all that should be needed on a commercial building fire. The model codes are performance based so you don’t have to spec pipe size. If you don’t understand all of this stuff, don’t play engineer; simply state to anyone who wants to build that they must follow the fire code and all appendices to the letter.

There is no requirement for the chief to follow the code. He can exceed it up to twice the calculated fire flow or be guided by it. Unfortunately, we often are the only section of city or county government that waves the code altogether and lets developers get away with murder. The end result is we doom the next generation to fighting fires without adequate water, because we wanted to be nice guys to someone who didn’t really care how many hydrants had to be put in. On occasion we read about firefighters dying waiting for a second pumper to bring more hose from an improperly placed hydrant. You’re welcome to stray from the code and accept the liability of your action or inaction. An unknowing public has no idea that its future fire protection had been squandered away by the “hired help” by not doing the job properly or by ignoring the national or local codes or standards. We need to ask the question, are we working for the other side?

I know of a booster pump at a fully sprinkled K Mart that the fire department required of the builder to ensure proper flows. When all eight hydrants at the K Mart were flowed with all three ports open on each hydrant, the pump still didn’t kick on. Why? The plumbing could supply more water (16,000 gpm) than the fire department could ever move. The booster pump will sit there forever and never be needed. Don’t play engineer; have a licensed contractor or architect follow the building and fire code to the letter. If you are going to trade something off, consider fewer hydrants with the same flow capability and have the developer supply big hose that can be used everywhere in the community.

Hydrant Inspections and Relief Tips

Hydrants should be inspected twice each year and flow records should be maintained. If the taxpayers of this country ever found out what lousy record keeping jobs their fire departments and water departments do on their multi-million dollar water system investments, they would run their leaders out of town. The insurance folks deduct up to 40 percent credit, if you don’t keep proper records and conduct proper tests twice yearly. Can you imagine a bigger waste of money than to combine the proper system with poor records, which will prevent your community from getting the insurance reduction that came with the initial investment? Proper records are worth at least two points of the 10-point rating.

If you want full insurance credit for your water system, you must conduct full-system pressure tests during inspections: The way you conduct these tests can have a 10- to 15-year impact on your community. Just any old test isn’t good enough. Most software companies will send you a sample database to try before you buy. They may also provide a whole host of other databases handy for ISO™ records and other record-keeping needs. These are nothing more than fill-in-the-blank systems; you don’t really have to be computer literate. Just turn on the computer and do what it says. Simple is the key word. Once you have the record-keeping methodology in hand, it is time to conduct the ideal hydrant test, earning the most points for the taxpayer.

Hydrant Testing

Any proper hydrant flow test is going to flow a lot of water. Consider investing in a few hydrant diffusers. They will help you keep from tearing up the landscape, there won’t be a need to block traffic and things will just go smoother. This company makes a couple good products one for 2 ½ inch and one for 4 or 4 ½ inch http://www.pollardwater.com/emarket/Pages/P67510diffuser.asp

http://www.pollardwater.com/emarket/Pages/P67501-100diffuser.asp

The most common hydrant test in America involves one hydrant. A cap gauge is put on one port of the hydrant, the hydrant is turned on and the gauge is read, providing the static water pressure in the main. Then the hydrant is turned off and a 2 1/2” port is flowed, with the cap gauge still in place. A Pitot gauge is used to measure the flow and provide the flow, or Pitot, reading. The cap gauge is then read to provide the residual reading at that given flow. When the test is complete, you end up with the four pieces of data you need from any flow test. The static pressure, the residual pressure and the flow pressure, which can be converted by calculator or chart to gpm. The circular discharge chart will help with the calculations.

Discharge Tables

Discharge Table for Circular Outlets

Outlet Diameters (inches)

Outlet Outlet

Pressure Pressure

2 1/2” 4” 4 1/2” 2 1/2” 4” 4 1/2”

1 170 430 540 2 240 610 770

3 290 740 940 4 340 860 1090

5 380 960 1220 6 410 1050 1340

7 440 1140 1440 8 480 1220 1540

9 500 1290 1640 10 530 1360 1730

11 560 1430 1810 12 580 1490 1980

13 610 1550 1960 14 630 1610 2040

15 650 1660 2110 16 670 1720 2180

17 690 1770 2440 18 710 1820 2310

19 730 1870 2370 20 750 1920 2430

22 790 2020 2550 24 820 2110 2660

26 860 2190 2770 28 890 2280 2880

30 920 2350 2980 32 950 2430 3080

34 980 2510 3170 36 1010 2580 3260

38 1040 2650 3350 40 1060 2720 3440

If math is your choice simply multiply the square root of the pressure by 167 to determine flow from a 2 1/2” opening, 430 for 4” or 541 for a 4 ½” opening.

Most of us learned how to flow test a hydrant this way, by watching one of the old guys who had learned the same

way from someone else generations ago. But this is not the correct way to conduct a test. At best it tells you just what that hydrant flows at that pressure. It is also the reason so many communities have such lousy fire insurance rates. Bad or incomplete data collection results in bad ratings. Remember, the ISO™ field representative will let you conduct whatever flow test you want and will then use the results you provide.

When you consider that the typical ISO™ rating is conducted using only seven representative test points, your actions can doom your entire community to high insurance rates. It is essential that you perform the best test. The folks at NFPA look for a 10 percent drop from static to residual. AWWA and AIA look for a 15 psi drop and a 25 percent drop, respectively. The closer the residual is to 20, the better. There is no standard, but all guides say the larger drops give the most accurate results. That is precisely what you’re looking for. In my department, we discovered that depending on the test methods employed, we could increase flow readings by as much as four to six times over the single 2 1/2” port and one hydrant method.

A better way to test a hydrant and water main is to put a cap gauge on the test hydrant. Then go down stream to two or more flow hydrants and record the Pitot flow readings from each flowing port, while someone else records the residuals at the test hydrant with the cap gauge. It takes more work than the single hydrant test, but the data gained is worth the effort.

Why do we use the 2 1/2” port when we conduct a test? I think it is tradition and that most guides suggest using the 2 1/2” port. They don’t want you using the big port because at pressures under 7 psi, it is difficult to get an accurate reading. But at pressures above 7 psi, it is not a problem. If you try to get a low residual, you need to open more than one 2 1/2” discharge. In our testing, we compared opening one and two 2 1/2” ports on a hydrant, as well as just the single pumper steamer outlet and finally had all three ports flowing at once. The more openings, the higher the flow reading in all cases. In fact, if we flowed two down stream hydrants or more, the readings went even higher. The Test example chart below shows our results. In one series of tests, we even changed out the style of hydrant to see if it was causing an unwanted flow restriction: It was!

Test Examples

In this test, the same test location used throughout with a cap gauge attached. The hydrant was supplied by an 8” main that is fully looped with a three port Mueller 5 1/4” barrel hydrant.

Test Static Residual Flow

Pressure Pressure gpm

1. One hydrant with cap gauge and 84 59 1,363

water flowing out of one 2 1/2” port

2. One hydrant with cap gauge and a second 84 42 2,193

hydrant flowing two 2 1/2” ports simultaneously

3. One hydrant with a cap gauge and a second hydrant

with two 2 1/2” and one 4 1/2” port flowing 84 18 3,416

4. One hydrant with cap gauge second hydrant has been 84 16 5,110

removed and replaced with a hydrant with two 4 1/2”

ports, both flowing at the same time

5. One hydrant with a cap gauge and two hydrants, both 84 6 5,570

flowing all three ports

In five tests, five different flows resulted, all from the same hydrant, which would you want to demonstrate the flow potential of the water system in front of a large commercial building in your town? With fire departments responsible for flows up to 3,500 gpm, only tests four and five are in your favor. An improvement of 400 percent is worth the effort, but you can be credited for any of the above flows; it’s purely a question of what you record and what method you demonstrate if asked by the rater.

So the proper way to test a hydrant and water main is to put a cap gauge on the test hydrant and get a static reading. Then go down stream to the next flow hydrant and up stream to the closest flow hydrant and flow both at the same time. Use as many ports and sizes of discharges to make the largest drop in residual pressure. Pitot each flowing port and then record the residual pressure back at the test hydrant.

All flows used by ISO™ use are expressed in terms of a 20 psi residual reading. There are two acceptable ways of converting to 20 psi. The most common is to use graph paper specifically designed for the purpose. One requires a little bit of math and the other you just fill in the blanks. The choice is yours.

Power of 54 chart

PSI ho.54 PSI ho.54 PSI ho.54 PSI ho.54 PSI ho.54 PSI ho.54 PSI ho.54

1 1.00 26 5.81 51 8.36 76 10.37 101 12.09 126 13.62 151 15.02

2 1.45 27 5.93 52 8.44 77 10.44 102 12.15 127 13.68 152 15.07

3 1.81 28 6.05 53 8.53 78 10.51 103 12.22 128 13.74 153 15.13

4 2.11 29 6.16 54 8.62 79 10.59 104 12.28 129 13.80 154 15.18

5 2.39 30 6.28 55 8.71 80 10.66 105 12.34 130 13.85 155 15.23

6 2.63 31 6.39 56 8.79 81 10.73 106 12.41 131 13.91 156 15.29

7 2.86 32 6.50 57 8.88 82 10.80 107 12.47 132 13.97 157 15.34

8 3.07 33 6.61 58 8.96 83 10.87 108 12.53 133 14.02 158 15.39

9 3.28 34 6.71 59 9.04 84 10.94 109 12.60 134 14.08 159 15.44

10 3.47 35 6.82 60 9.12 85 11.01 110 12.66 135 14.14 160 15.50

11 3.65 36 6.93 61 9.21 86 11.08 111 12.72 136 14.19 161 15.55

12 3.83 37 7.03 62 9.29 87 11.15 112 12.78 137 14.25 162 15.60

13 4.00 38 7.13 63 9.37 88 11.22 113 12.84 138 14.31 163 15.65

14 4.16 39 7.23 64 9.45 89 11.29 114 12.90 139 14.36 164 15.70

15 4.32 40 7.33 65 9.53 90 11.36 115 12.96 140 14.42 165 15.76

16 4.47 41 7.43 66 9.61 91 11.43 116 13.03 141 14.47 166 15.81

17 4.62 42 7.53 67 9.69 92 11.49 117 13.09 142 14.53 167 15.86

18 4.76 43 7.62 68 9.76 93 11.56 118 13.15 143 14.58 168 15.91

19 4.90 44 7.72 69 9.84 94 11.63 119 13.21 144 14.64 169 15.96

20 5.04 45 7.81 70 9.92 95 11.69 120 13.27 145 14.69 170 16.01

21 5.18 46 7.91 71 9.99 96 11.76 121 13.33 146 14.75 171 16.06

22 5.31 47 8.00 72 10.07 97 11.83 122 13.39 147 14.80 172 16.11

23 5.44 48 8.09 73 10.14 98 11.89 123 13.44 148 14.86 173 16.16

24 5.56 49 8.18 74 10.22 99 11.96 124 13.50 149 14.91 174 16.21

25 5.69 50 8.27 75 10.29 100 12.02 125 13.56 150 14.97 175 16.26

The ISO™ uses this chart to figure 20 psi residual flows from your test data. It works like this:

Step 1: You need three pieces of information from the test hydrant before you begin:

a. The static pressure

b. The residual pressure

c. The flow in gpm

Examples: 80 psi static, 40 psi residual and 1,250 gpm flow.

Step 2: Take the static pressure from the hydrant and subtract 20 psi (your residual pressure).

Example: 80 - 20 = 60 psi

Step 3: Take the static pressure and subtract the residual pressure.

Example: 80 - 40 = 40 psi

Step 4: Convert both numbers to their 54th power.

Example: 60 psi becomes 9.12 and 40 psi becomes 7.33.

Step 5: Divide the converted sum of step 2 by the converted sum of step 3.

Example: 9.12 divided by 7.33 = 1.244.

Step 6: To get the final flow at 20 psi residual multiply the sum of step 5 by the gpm flow.

Example: 1.244 x 1,250 gpm = 1,555 gpm at 20 psi residual.

Step 7: Round to the nearest 50 gpm for flows under 1,000 gpm and round to the nearest 100 at flows

above 1,000 gpm.

Final Answer is an ISO™ flow of 1,600 gpm at 20 psi.

Other examples:

A hydrant with 105 psi static, a residual of 80 psi and a flow of 1,350 gpm = 2,612 gpm at 20 psi or 2,600 gpm at 20 psi

A hydrant with 40 psi static, a residual of 5 psi and a flow of 550 gpm = 406 gpm at 20 psi or 400 gpm at 20 psi.

FORM:

1. ______Static psi - desired residual _____ = _______ covert to power of 54 = ________

2. ______Static psi – actual residual _____ = ______ convert to power of 54 = ________

3. Divide number 2 into number 1 = ________

4. Total measured flow out of all discharges ________ x __________(above) = _____ gpm @ 20 psi

5. Round to nearest 100 gpm if flow is over 1000 or nearest 50 gpm if under 1000 gpm _______ gpm

1. _80_Static psi - desired residual _20_ = _60_ covert to power of 54 = _9.12_

1. _80_Static psi – actual residual _40_ = _40_ convert to power of 54 = _7.33_

3. Divide number 2 into number 1 = _1.244_

4. Total measured flow out of all discharges _1250_ x _1.244_(above) = _ 1555_gpm @20 psi

5. Round to nearest 100 gpm if flow is over 1000 or nearest 50 gpm if under 1000 gpm _1600 gpm_

When the above test flows are converted to 20 psi residual, you see increases of 62, 17, 26, 7 and 0 percent. The flows would be 2,217 gpm, 2,562 gpm, 4,288 gpm, 5,492 and 5,570 gpm, respectively. Sure, anybody can get a lot of water out of a well looped 8” or larger main, but what about a 6” main? We conducted a similar test using a 6” main with hydrants with only two 2 1/2” connections with 4” barrels with the following results:

Test Static Flow Residual Gpm 20 psi

Pressure Pressure Pressure Flow Gpm Flow

#1 One hydrant one 2 1/2” port 44 28 26 858 1,019

#2 One hydrant two 2 1/2” ports 44 22 24 1,517 1,674

#3 Two hydrants Three 2 1/2” ports 44 22 19 2,272 2,272

#4 Two hydrants four 2 1/2” ports 60 23 19 3,112 3,112

Do you want an 858 gpm credit or 2,272 gpm? On test four, we had the water department open a pressure-reducing valve to increase system pressure 16 psi, increasing the fire flow 840 gpm. You need to carefully review your water main system and see what flow restriction devices are in place. Ask why they are there and ask why not open them a little bit more.

There are other ways of improving your hydrant flows. One is to ensure that you are using the correct hydrant coefficient. The hydrant manufacturer can be contacted and asked for their numbers, or a rough estimate can be made by sticking your fingers in the hydrant and comparing your estimate with the attached drawing. Another way is to measure the actual interior diameter of each hydrant discharge port. Some 2 1/2” ports are 2 5/8” or 2 3/4". Some steamer ports vary by as much as 1/4”. The coefficient can increase your flows by as much as 20 percent. A 1/8” change in diameter can result in 110 to 220 gpm change. Proper input results in better output.

How will your firefighters know on the day of the fire how much water a hydrant will flow? Once you’ve completed the flow tests, it is a good time to color code the hydrants to provide an immediate visual indication of flow and main size. If you’re not painting the hydrants, odds are your firefighters don’t have a clue of the flow potential from a hydrant. Why paint the hydrant to indicate main size? On the everyday fire it doesn’t matter, but many communities have numerous hydrants all sharing the same small main or mains. On a large fire, the first hydrant provides 1,200 gpm. When the second hydrant is opened, the first hydrant drops to 800 gpm at a lower residual pressure and the second hydrant flows 600 gpm. Even if your interior crews survive the loss of water, things can get worse: The third hydrant can drop the residual even lowers the first hydrant would drop in flow to 600 gpm; the second hydrant to 400 gpm; and the third hydrant will get down to 300 gpm. Each additional pumper working the small main or mains drops the flow and the pressure, pushing the water though your supply lines. In essence, you’re working against yourself. By knowing main size, command can inform incoming companies to stay off the “red” and “yellow” mains; In other words, catch a good hydrant. Preplans should contain hose evolution information for areas with small mains. Consider reflective paints and hydrant markers to ensure that companies can find hydrants at night and in heavy smoke. Some departments have had success stenciling hydrants with main size, gpm flow and residual.

8” 12”

1250 gpm 5500 gpm

40 psi 85 psi

Every community has to live with the mistakes of the past on at least a portion of their water system but there is no excuse for carrying on policies of the past if they are flawed. Sit down with the local water official and identify ways to bring about measurable improvements in community fire defenses. Ask questions like, “Why are we specing hydrants with threaded ports when all of our supply hose have Storz couplings?” The state of Washington leads the nation in departments specing 4” and 5” Storz ports with caps and cable caps on all hydrants. Entire communities--big and small--have retrofitted all existing hydrants to firefighter friendly Storz.

Last month, my department explained to the water department its desire to convert all 335 hydrants in town to Storz using the water department’s budget. Four weeks and $37,000 later, all of the fittings were on the hydrants and the problem solved forever. Nothing will ever happen if you don't ask. The days of caps that are too tight, cheater bars, crossed threads and jammed chains are over. Now, 30-second hydrant hookups are the norm. The weight of the hose pack has been reduced significantly, because we no longer need to carry adapters to convert to big and small ports to Storz.

Why do the rest of us continue to purchase hydrants with two 2 1/2” and one big port? Is it because we have always speced them that way? Did you know that several makers of hydrants can provide a hydrant with twin big ports or a hydrant with one 2 1/2” and two big ports for the same or less money than the old traditional hydrant? Big flows and big ports go hand in hand. Does the water guy know that all hydrants must have steamer ports, have at least a 5” barrel and a 6” or larger supply to get full ISO™ credit?

Hose

No discussion of hydrants would be complete without acknowledging the significance of hose. The ISO™ guy gives credit only for hydrants within 1,000 feet of a building, the way hose can be laid. If the hydrant has a steamer connection, you get up to 1,000 gpm credit. If it has two 2 1/2” ports, the hydrant is rated at no more than 750 gpm; with one 2 1/2” port, it will rate a maximum of 500 gpm. Placement of hydrants also cuts into hydrant performance. A hydrant within 300’ of the test property is rated at a maximum of 1,000 gpm. A hydrant within 301’ to 600’ is rated at a maximum of 670 gpm and one 601’ to 1,000’ is rated at no more than 250 gpm. It does not matter what the hydrant really flows. The rater recognizes that small hose does not cut it. If you carry large diameter hose, full credit to 1,000’ can be given based upon diameter and amount carried. However, you must have written SOP’s to use the hose in a reverse lay mode. No SOP, no credit. In fact, if you don’t ask for the credit you won’t get it.

Hose lays may be credited for whatever flow is possible over the above minimum flows with a maximum lay of 1000 feet. The only rules are the hose must be bigger than 2 ½” and is limited to the least amount carried on all required engines, the pump capacity of the smallest pump cannot be exceeded at whatever engine pressure is selected (see figure J), the hydrant rating cannot be exceeded, the pumper must be at the hydrant and only one pumper can be used. If the minimum amount of hose carried is 700 feet of 4” hose, it