Increasing Standard Operations
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MANAGEMENT
A town without any public hydrants and/or having a fire department without several tankers ordinarily has a slim chance of reducing its ISO rating, especially when you consider that the Insurance Services Office (ISO) rates rural fire departments 40 points on their water supplies.
Nevertheless, through ingenuity, enthusiasm, and the support of both its firefighters and community, the Egremont Volunteer Fire Department in South Egremont, MA, lowered the town’s Class 9 ISO rating to a Class 6.
The ISO rating system for rural communities is:
And since the fire department made significant improvements in all these areas, the town’s Board of Selectmen, having reviewed the department’s well-documented improvement plan, petitioned the ISO for a reevaluation of its rating.
AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT
One of the key areas in lowering the town’s ISO rating was the purchase of a new 1,000-gpm pumper having a 1,250-gallon tank, preconnected attack lines, and provisions for a deck gun (see “Public Relations, Education, and Productivity = Results,” FIRE ENGINEERING, March 1986). This apparatus was added to the department’s 1,600-gallon tanker, brush truck, and its 750-gallon and 500-gallon pumpers. Total water carrying capacity is now 4,100 gallons.
Another key area of improvement was the town’s water system. Egremont does not have any usable fire hydrants, and its tanker shuttle cannot meet the ISO flow requirements. In 1982, for example, using every available tanker in our area, we could only flow 430 gpm during a controlled Massachusetts Fire Academy training course. Since the ISO only allows five minutes to start 250 gpm, plus 10 more minutes to reach maximum flow, this approach, while commendable, would not allow us to meet ISO time standards because some of the mutual aid tankers are 5 to 15 miles away. Furthermore, 430 gpm would not meet our needed flow in the event of a large fire.
Since the ISO gives credit for drought-free, static water supplies, we opted to use 4-inch large diameter hose on our pumpers and develop drought-free ponds and install frost-free draft hydrants. Our eight draft ponds with hydrants and our 3,000-foot, 4-inch, above ground, horizontal, water supply system has cost about $20,000—far less than the cost of one new tanker. The department put this plan into action by:
1. Developing a series of 50-year, drought-free ponds that hold a minimum of 100,000 gallons of water. We fabricated 6-inch, frostfree, draft hydrants. This allows us to hook up and flow up to 1,000 gpm from draft in 1 minute 19 seconds.
2. Installing 6-inch, frost-free, draft hydrants in streams that could meet the drought requirements.
3. Using the donated services of George Kulik, Egremont resident and professional engineer, we were able to certify that our water sources were indeed drought-free.
4. Locating all hydrants on roads that support our trucks and that are plowed out during snows.
5. Purchasing, with donated funds, 3,000 feet of 4-inch supply hose and the necessary distributor valves and gated intake valves to set up our above ground, horizontal, “hydrant” system. (We carry 1,000 feet of 4-inch hose on each of our three pumpers.) Ed Sutch, regional sales manager for Snap-Tite Hose, provided valuable technical support on this project, giving us the flexibility of laying 2,000 feet of hose from any of our water sources. By developing static water supplies 2,000 feet apart, we cover 80% of our structures in South Egremont. At presstime, we were adding new static water sources in an attempt to cover as many of the other 20% as possible.
6. Using our tanker and three pumpers, plus our 4-inch hose, we proved to the ISO that we could flow 704 gpm through 2,000 feet of hose within the required time.
Since our ISO test in 1985, we have added an in-line relay valve to our above ground hydrant system. Using Great Barrington’s 1,000-gpm pumper, one of our mutual aid company’s apparatus, we can flow 980 gpm through 2,000 feet of 4-inch hose when relaying.
INSPECTION POINTS
Remember, the ISO inspection is a grading process. The inspector is not there to teach you. You will need to have everything in order before he arrives, and plan on a fouror five-day visit by the ISO inspector. It is a good idea to assign one or two officers or firefighters to work with the ISO inspector and to have your documentation easily accessible. Keep in mind that overweight apparatus will cost you points.
Some of the key items that will be reviewed and graded are:
- Pump certification for three previous years.
- Training records.
- Average number of personnel responding day and night.
- Dispatching system: pagers, sirens, radios, telephones, etc.
- Annual hose test results.
- Equipment carried: axes, hose, salvage covers, foam, deck guns, nozzles, etc.
- Correct directory listing of your emergency phone number.
- Actual pump tests to demon-
- strate uninterrupted flows. If you interrupt the flow, you flunk. Period. It will take time before the ISO will come back again.
- A detailed report of a recent fire outlining flow over 250 gpm.
- A letter from the county engineer stating that your roads and bridges will support the weight of your trucks.
- Station house generators; log book showing run tests.
- Location and capacity of static water supplies.
RESULTS OF THE LOWER ISO RATING
The documented savings due to a change from Class 9 to Class 6 are coming to light. These reductions apply to structures within 2,000 feet of our approved draft sites.
- A local business has reported a fire insurance savings of $2,000 per year.
- A small local innkeeper has saved $800 per year.
- One of our firefighters changed his homeowner’s deductible from $250 to $500, raised his house evaluation by 40%, and now saves $200 per year.
- A two-family rental dwelling realized a savings of $188 per year.
- We are saving $260 per year on our two fire stations.
- NOTE: The rule of thumb is that homeowner policies are reduced by about 16% and businesses by about 34% on the fire premiums.
SUMMARY
If you are a volunteer fire department suffering from a lack of funding, you may find that by improving your ISO rating, you might be able to tap a source of funds from your community. Our rating reduction (and subsequent savings/ financial payback) was done largely through fund letters, steak dinners, and chimney cleaning details. Local contractors donated backhoes and trucks. Our firefighters pitched in with the manual labor and necessary paperwork. Our program received tremendous encouragement and support from many of our businessmen and citizens, making the effort well worthwhile, and allowing us to live up to our department motto: “Servicing Our Community with Pride since 1932.”
