GENTRY — A lower ISO rating for the Gentry Fire Department could mean lower insurance premiums for residents of the Gentry Fire District, and even more important to the community would be the potential for preventing more losses in both lives and property from fires, but obtaining those goals won't be easy for the department or the city.
Gentry Fire Department's rating is currently a 5 on a 1-10 ISO scale, with one being the best and 10 being below minimum criteria standards.
With Gentry's 2010 rating of 5, it is ahead of most small town departments across the nation, but that is not stopping the department's chief and his department, made up mostly of volunteers, from trying to improve that rating.
According to the Insurance Services Office website, "ISO is an independent organization that serves insurance companies, fire departments, insurance regulators and others by providing information about risk. ISO's expert staff collects information about municipal fire-protectionefforts in communities throughout the United States. In each of those communities, ISO analyzes the relevant data and assigns a Public Protection Classification - a number from 1 to 10. Class 1 represents exemplary fire protection, and Class 10 indicates that the area's fire-suppression program does not meet ISO's minimum criteria.
"Every year, ISO employees visit thousands of fire districts to review firefighting capabilities and evaluate the adequacy of water systems. Because insurance companies pay all the PPC program's administrative costs, ISO provides the service free of charge to the communities.
"Virtually all U.S. insurers of homes and business property use ISO's Public Protection Classification in calculating premiums.In general, the price of fire insurance in a community with a good PPC is substantially lower than in a community with a poor PPC, assuming all other factors are equal."
The ISO website explains the factors which determine a fire department’s classification: "A Community's PPC depends on:
◊Fire alarm and communications systems, including telephone systems, telephone lines, staffing, and dispatching systems;
◊The fire department, including equipment, staffing, training, and geographic distribution of fire companies;
◊The water supply system, including condition and maintenance of hydrants, and a careful evaluation of the amount of available water compared with the amount needed to suppress fires.
ISO's PPC program evaluates communities according to a uniform set of criteria, incorporating nationally recognized standards developed by the National Fire Protection Association and the American Water Works Association. So, the PPC program provides a useful benchmark that helps fire departments and other public officials measure the effectiveness of their efforts - and plan for improvements."
Two issues stand in the way of the Gentry department improving its ISO rating from a 5 down to a 3 or 4, Cripps said at a fire committee meeting on May 4: The water system and department staffing and training. Meeting standards for an improved ISO rating would be costly to the city, Cripps said.
To achieve an ISO rating of 3 or 4 requires an average training of 20 hours per month for each firefighter on the department, Cripps said.
"That's a pretty lofty goal for a volunteer staff," Cripps said. "We won't be able to go there just yet," he added but said it may be attainable a few years down the road as the department continues to improve and add to its firefighting capabilities.
The department currently has two fire department trainings per month and one medical, with an additional voluntary session which can be used for additional training or to make up for a missed required session. Until the fire department goes to full-time staffing around the clock, the training goal will be almost impossible for the department, Cripps explained.
The city's water systemachieved just over 20 points out of 40 points possible, Cripps said.
"It's a volume issue, not pressure," Cripps said, explaining that the department could not access enough gallons per minute from hydrants to meet higher ISO standards.
"The fire load in downtown, because it's not sprinkled, is rated (by ISO) at 3,000 gallons per minute," Cripps said. "Some buildings are greater and some less than the 3,000 per minute average."
"No hydrants are capable of that," Cripps explained, adding that the best hydrant (which is outside the city limits) is capable of near 1,500 gallons per minute.
"We never will get 3,000 gallons from a single hydrant, so we'll need two hydrants," he said.
Cripps suggested the city consider, in its long-range planning, looping the system and upgrading some 6-inch lines to 8- or 10-inch lines.
The obstacle, which will take years to overcome, didn't keep Cripps and his department from trying to meet the rated water needs in Gentry in another way.
"We used to only taketankers to fires outside the city, but there's no reason we can't use them in the city," he said.
Using a tanker shuttle operation from a second hydrant or hydrants in another quadrant of the city, Cripps is seeking to supplement the available water from a local hydrant to meet the city's fire suppression needs.
Earlier this year, Cripps and his department tested the shuttle system for ISO and the results will be learned in July or August when the department is notified of its 2011 ISO rating.
According to Cripps, the department's radio dispatch is rated a 3; the fire department itself, a 4; and the water system, 5. If the tanker shuttles can bring up the water availability, the department could receive an improved rating this summer. That is Cripps' hope.
In line with his goal of improving the Gentry Fire Department's fire-fighting capabilities, Cripps told committee members he would like to add another tanker to the department's fleet and could obtain one - a 1984 Freightliner with a 3,250 gallon tank- from another Benton County Fire Department for $5,000. The stainless steel tank on the truck alone was worth far more than the price he obtained on the truck. Should the council approve the purchase, money for the truck purchase is already in the Fire Department Sinking Fund - money set aside from city water bills for fire truck purchases.
Cripps also suggested that a pumper truck be the next big equipment purchase for the department when the money is available. He explained that the city needs to use three pumper trucks to maintain the 3,000 gallons per minute capability. The last purchase of a pumper by the city was in 1994, Cripps said.
Cost of new pumper trucks begins at about $170,000, Cripps said.
He also suggested to the committee, as it planned for the next few years, that it would be wise to replace the chief's pickup truck while it could still be utilized by the department as a reliable vehicle for medical calls. Doing so could save the city money by maximizing use of vehicles.
News, Pages 1 on 05/11/2011