238 page book on how to get the best possible rating.
Your Next
ISO
RATING
Simple Solutions
By Larry Stevens
C 1997
ISO is a registered trademark
Table of Contents
1. Its ISO Time! 3
a. It Doesnt Really Matter 5
b. Batch Reports 7
c. Fire Flows 8
2. Communications 10
3. Water Supply
a. Water Works 12
b. Supply Works Capacity 22
c .Hydrant Colors 25
d. Hydrants Types, Styles, and Inspections 28
e. Hydrant Spacing
4. Fire Department
a. Equipment On Existing Equipment 35
b. Automatic Aid 43
c. Response to Structure Fires 46
d. Personnel 49
e. Got Pre-Fire Plans? 52
f. Training--The Easy Points 55
g. Divergence 58
h. Distribution 60
i. Pump Capacity 62
5. Rural Water Supply 65
a. How Much Water. 66
b. Credit by Demonstration 67
c. How Much Water on Wheels 69
d. Shuttles 71
e. GPM per Tanker 72
f. Sample Shuttle Drill 77
g. Required Data 79
h. Nurse Tanker Relay 83
I. Relays 83
J. Letters 85
k. Drafting 86
l. Data Sheets 88
m. Smart Ways Around the Rules 91
6. Where Do You Start 114
7. When Can You Invite ISO Back? 93
8. A Tale of Two Ratings
a. The City 95
b. The Rural Area 101
9. When Your Rating Goes Up 107
10. The ISO Is Due Here in 45 Days! 118
11. Your Next Rating 119
12. Sample Point Total Tallies 132
13. Charts
a. Residential Premiums 160
b. Number of Homes in the Community 162
c. Commercial Rates 164
14. Keys to Success 166
SAMPLES
Its ISO Time!
Every 10 to 15 years hes back. The Insurance Services Office guy wants to pay the department a visit real soon. The whole idea of outside independent accreditation entering your organization and telling your mayor or council what kind of job youre doing can be a real nightmare--especially if you dont 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. These could very well list dozens of embarrassing items where no records are on file.
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. Ive heard the old, These two new guys are going to really help lower our rating. In fact, they wont even be noticed.
This ISO thing is nothing more than an open book test with three chapters. Communications, water and fire department. Youve 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 an automatic start on the backup generator? Do you keep a log book that proves you operate and maintain it? Are there enough operators? Is the communications system supervised? If not, the first 10 points might be wasted. The communications standard is written around the NFPA minimum standards.
Have you even made an effort to solve all the water problems the 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? Do you know what you need? Is the water authority doing its own thing and leaving you out to dry because you dont have a working relationship with the communitys best interest in mind? Do you have three years of biannual hydrant test and maintenance records ? Are you installing the correct type of hydrants? If you dont know the answers, check out the 80-page rating schedule.
If you dont have much hydrant coverage, what have you done in the way of shuttles or long lays? I know a department that just finished attaining an ISO 4 without hydrants! An ISO 9 is nothing more than a brush truck, a very modest equipment list, and four firefighters. An ISO 8 is the same thing with a 4,000-gallon tanker replacing the brush truck. Place a station every 5 miles and equip it with a brush truck or a tanker and get an 8 or 9 instead of an unprotected 10! There are a lot of departments with 8s and 9s with much larger investments in equipment. The question needs to be why? If youre 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 24 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 doesnt know they have a fire in building with a basement until its too late! No wonder stuff stored in the truss space falls and kills firefighters. 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 or an agreement for a reserve with another agency? Do your stations offer proper coverage of 1 1/2 miles for the first arriving engine and 2 1/2 miles for a truck? Do you conduct yearly pump, aerial and hose testing? Do you record it? If not, dont expect much credit for the apparatus.
What about people? Do you average four paid or 12 volunteers per company on actual structure fire calls? If not, your organization is not big enough! In many communities, youre going to need that staffing on two engines and a truck. Twelve paid and 36 volunteers actually responding--not total membership. At the very least, staff your rigs to the max. There is no limit to the number of points you can get for people.
I know there is a bunch of useless junk in the schedule like $400 hose jackets ($40 each through W.S. Darley), 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 a 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 they are not driven by the ISO. But there are no good excuses for a bad ISO rating when it is an open book test. Ill let you know how our rating goes.
It Doesnt Really Matter?
Doing It For the People
A lot of people say ISO doesnt 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, but 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 doesnt 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 dont have to take what is put aside for you if your department already has more money than it can use, though!
ISO doesnt matter anymore! Try telling that to the businessmen and women in my community who know that a rate reduction of a 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. 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 doesnt 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.
Dont be surprised if in 21 days they increase your capital outlay budget from $10,000 to $2,500,000 and ask you, Are you sure it is enough? You dont 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. What a better plank to run on than looking out for the electorate? A volunteer Fire Chief friend in Oregon had the city council give him an entire fleet of new fire apparatus after a favorable rating. His boss had just wanted to maintain their ISO 4 and ended up with a very low 2!
In many communities the fire service is viewed as a bottomless gopher hole that the community pours money down. Isnt it time to prove the value of the organization? Why do so many fire departments have ISO Class One, Two, or Three Fire Department in big letters on each side of their apparatus? Even a department the size of Los Angeles City has Class One Fire Department painted on every unit, 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 accreditation has value! Isnt it time to take the time to get what is coming to automatic aid? Is it worth the trouble? A Tale of Two Ratings The City Rating A few months ago, the Fallon/Churchill (Nevada) Volunteer Fire Department was about to go through the scrutiny of the ISO grading. Their old rating was an ISO Class 5. They had hired a consultant to produce a plan to improve that rating. The consultants thought a Class 4 was the best possible rating the community could achieve. A resident expert thought otherwise and convinced the officers to go against the recommendations of the nationally known consultants. The final straw to ignore their recommendations was when an assistant chief called another town and talked to their chief about their new rating the consultants said they helped with. The fire chief said they never helped him! The ISO grading was viewed as nothing more than an open book test requiring a plan and appropriate action. A plan was presented to the Fire Chief to upgrade weaknesses in water supply, hoses, aerial and pump testing, equipment, training, staffing, stations and communications. The resident experts first suggestion was to invite the ISO in as soon as possible. Keep in mind as you read this account that this fire department didn't do anything any other department couldn't have done, but they were the first volunteers to get the coveted ISO Class 1. Taking Reasonable Action The town's public works department took on the water supply recommendations with the full support of the city council, and they completed a crash program, upgrading pipe diameter and laying pipe. They placed hydrants around significant commercial structures--where they should have been during the last rating. Areas with ridiculous spacing had intermediate hydrants installed. Simply following the building code in the past would have made all of this effort unnecessary; townspeople had paid about 40 times their annual contribution to the fire department budget in excessive insurance rates each year for 10 years because no one had taken reasonable action. Areas that had been classified as deficient had plenty of water in the ground, but no one had never bothered to hook hydrants to the pipe, so 20 new hydrants were connected to a high-pressure main that looped the town. Where mains and hydrants proved cost-prohibitive, the town relied on long stretches of 5 hose. One fire hydrant was placed within 1,000' of each structure for each 1,000 gpm required for fire flow. A Batch List was requested from the ISO that told the department which buildings to target. The town no longer installs undersized 4 and 6 pipe. All new street projects include upgraded pipe and the addition of hydrants, when needed. All hydrants were flow tested bi-annually the ISO way and were properly recorded. (See Water Works, Firefighter's News, August/September 1996.) Every hydrant was color coded for flow and main size, FFN, December/January 1996); those in poor operating condition were replaced, repaired, moved or removed. All hydrants received permanent large diameter Storz adapter fittings. Grading and Upgrading A number of changes had to be effected to improve the department's ISO rating. Apparatus had been neglected for years and one engine ceased during a pump test. It took just 3 days to get approval from the elected officials to go to bid for 2.2 million dollars worth of apparatus. The mayor said, we wondered when you were going to ask for new apparatus. The public would do anything for the volunteers if they would only ask. The four new fully equipped quads and quints that the department ordered to replace two 26-year-old engines would earn ISO credit as two engines and a truck company for each pair. (See FFN, October/November 1996.) With the addition of these rigs, the department's pump capacity increased by 5,200 gpm. Volunteer staffing was increased from 14 percent to 19 percent per quarter to more closely mirror ISO's schedule. (See FRM, March 1997) Training hours were increased and documented. Automatic-aid agreements were signed, providing additional apparatus and personnel. Pump, aerial and hose tests were conducted and recorded per NFPA standards. After a lot of work, preplans were available for all commercial buildings on a computer data base and each department member had a copy. The dispatch center was also upgraded by the sheriff's office to match NFPA 1221 standards. The grading went off pretty much as planned, with only one exception: None of the fully sprinkled buildings in town was credited as being sprinkled. Normally, fully rated and coded sprinkled buildings don't count against you. In this case, they counted against the community in fire flow, which in turn, required 18 more firefighters, an additional engine and a 1,000 gpm greater demand on the town's water system. Even though local building owners had done everything they were supposed to do each year, the paper work had not reached the ISO. Pressure tests, underground tests, truss loads, design plans and calculations were needed. Although it's not normally the fire department's job to get such information to the ISO, it's certainly in the community's best interest if the department makes sure it happens. All the paper work was quickly supplied to the ISO during the rating, but it still didn't count on the grading. Remember, if a sprinkled building appears on the Batch List, it will count against you. The Totals The department was willing to put in as much time as necessary to improve the rating. In some ways, this effort was effective; in other areas, they clearly had more to do. Communications got 10 out of 10 points, justifying the upgrades. The modest investment in water supply, proper testing and record keeping paid off in attaining 39.72 out of a possible 40 points. (See Fire-Rescue Magazine, May and June 1997.) All 48 tested hydrants flowed what was needed and worked perfectly, because the volunteers had worked tirelessly to test them. The points lost were for 50 hydrants that still had 4 supply lines and for 90 hydrants that did not have steamer ports. A seven-year plan worked out with public works will make sure none of those hydrants exist during the next ISO inspection. The department and the city hope that by following the building code in the future, past problems will not reappear on new construction. The fire department scored 0.95 out of a possible total of one for reserve pumpers and 9.75 out of 10 for engine companies. The department did not get full engine and reserve pumper credit because of short sightedness on apparatus purchases in the 80s, which cost it 25 percent to 50 percent credit on master streams; the rigs had only 500 gpm and 750 gpm pumps. The department earned all of the possible five points for aerial ladder credit, as well as the full point possible for the reserve ladder. Distribution of apparatus in stations got 3.92 out of a possible four points because five of 300 hydrants were more than one and one-half miles from the fire station and reduced master stream credit for the three engine companies that respond from those stations. The department earned 7.20 out of nine total training points because members attended only 80 percent of the burn-building classes each year. (See FFN, December/January 1996.) Factoring in Personnel The cost of being a volunteer department was most obvious in categories affected by personnel(staffing). Prior to the rating, members questioned ISO representatives in three offices around the country about some ambiguity in the wording concerning personnel. All three said that all responding firefighters would be credited. The ISO advice you get on the phone and what happens the day of the audit may be two different things, however. The department exceeded the benchmark in personnel in every measure, but the ISO grader added actual manpower response on structure fires to find the average per call. To understand how your volunteer department might be graded when a sign-in sheet is used, take the average number of members responding on structure fires, subtract a chief officer and then divide by three because they are volunteers. If a sign-in sheet isn't used, divide the number by six. The Fallon/Churchill Fire Department kept a proper sign-in sheet and had plenty of people, but the ISO put a cap on staffing at 48 members and a Chief on any structure fire and then divided by three. Confusion and contradiction seemed to be the order of the day. On the phone, ISO representatives had said they would allow surplus companies to transport people to the fire scene, but on the day of the rating, the ISO representative on scene did not allow it. Even more confusing, the only textbook on the subject, Harry Hickey's Fire Suppression Rating Schedule Handbook, which had ISO's top two guys serving as technical editors, disagrees with the way the ISO conducted the rating in this community. According to the ISO representative who graded the community, a department cannot have more than 12 people assigned to a required unit, even if records show more. In the handbook and according to representatives contacted by phone, that number is 18, however. The end result was a score of only 10 points in a category that has a possible 15 plus. In a nutshell, nine firefighters and a chief officer wouldn't count on any call, according to the ISO grader on scene. The number-two guy at ISO attempted to justify this ruling by citing studies that had found that having too many firefighters at a fire reduces fireground performance. Remember that the next big fire you're on. Most Chiefs can't remember that ever being a problem. NFPA's book Fire Attack 2 says the most effective departments are those that average one firefighter per 50 gpm flowing. If that's true, the Fallon/Churchill Department should run crews of 18, but by ISO's "divide by three" formula, 54 members should be on each rig or 108 if you dont keep a proper sign in sheet. Unless you are a career department running crews of six per company or you run a standby or sleeper program in a volunteer department and keep excellent records, you're artificially limited by the ISO. The sprinkled buildings and new method of calculation cost the department at almost six points in the personnel category for 10.4 out of 15+ possible. Issues like this help maintain ISOs poor fire service image. Overcoming Difficulties Many aspects of gathering the required data or making the changes needed to improve fire protection can be as difficult as pulling teeth. In this case, the fire department was sometimes at fault; other times, the budget should bear the fault. Firefighters committed to do things, but then did not always complete their tasks. Only a wild, last-second, unscheduled work party finished the job on the eve of the ISO's arrival. The city would have done anything the department had asked, but in many cases, the department failed to ask. Perhaps this was because in some members' minds this was just ISO stuff, not something that would provide measurable improvements in fire suppression capability. Some pet projects weren't financed because of the financial needs of ISO upgrades, and that hurt some feelings. Through it all, though, the Chief and the local expert kept their eyes on the goal and finished a majority of what was started. Although the department didn't do nearly as well as expected scoring 9.96 points minus 2.56 for divergence for 90.4 points out of a possible 100--an ISO Class 1--and there aren't any other Class 1 volunteer departments in the country. This puts the Fallon/Churchill Department on the same ISO rating level as 27 career departments. In other words, they tied for first place out of approximately 88,000 ratings. And You Can, Too The Fallon/Churchill Fire Department isn't the only ISO success story in the country, however. Other departments have worked as hard and have achieved great success. Dallas, Oregon, for instance, began with a hope of maintaining their Class 4 rating, but Fire Chief Mark Stevens wasn't satisfied with that. As volunteers protecting a community of 10,000, this department began an upgrade program to maximize communications, apparatus and water supply points. In the end, they fell short only in staffing and training. The result of their efforts was the lowest rating in Oregon for either paid or volunteer departments and the second-best rating in the country (an ISO Class 2) for any volunteer department. Only a change of chiefs will keep them from becoming an ISO Class 1 community. Benefits What are the benefits of dropping five points on your insurance rating? The town has only 7,000 homeowners, but they can expect a drop of 17% to 27% on their fire insurance for the next 15 years. In real terms that is $61 to $174 annually per home. Thats around a third of million dollars a year for the community or four million dollars over the rating period. Rental insurance for personal property protection will drop as much as 40%. Commercial savings are 25% for the structure and the contents. The combined savings are at least $570,000 a year or $8,500,000 over the rating period. This is on top of the $555,000 savings they already enjoyed being a Class 5. Overall the fire departments existence equates to a savings for the people of 17 million dollars over the rating period. That is about $2400 per capita! The Winners Fallon/Churchill, Nevada, residents believe the lower rating is worth the effort expended. The area is now more attractive to business, for one thing. Before the rating change, the city's contribution to the fire department budget was only one-seventh of the yearly insurance savings, but now it is one-fifteenth. The fire insurance savings more than covers the entire city fire department budget every 26 days! You can assume that when you generate more income for the citizens than you take in taxes, your department is doing the right things. Stepping on Toes Harrisons Postulate states: For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism. That is very true when you ramp up for a great rating, you're bound to step on some toes. The most difficult critics will be members of the organization itself, generally officers who don't understand what is going on and don't want to. If you take the spotlight off an officer who normally enjoys it, they might retaliate by subversion, criticizing each step. In departments across the country, the same rumbling can be heard: It's not going to make us a better department; I don't think ISO works that way here; we can't save any more money with a rate change; we can't get any better rating because we are volunteers; we have limited manpower; we cannot afford it; or my insurance agent doesn't know anything about it. It's almost as if certain factions of the fire service do not believe we deserve good water systems, proper radio communications and the correct mix of fire fighting equipment. Anything beyond barely acceptable is considered a waste of money in their minds. Buying used junk is always the answer, putting their own members lives in jeopardy on every call. Sometimes jealous members who don't want to contribute--or who cannot contribute--go after volunteer members who do have the time and want to help. You can fight back, though. One volunteer responded to the charge of spending too much time helping the department by saying "I make as much volunteering as you do." According to Conway's Law, in any organization, there will always be one person who knows what's going on. That person must be fired. Good Enough One real challenge of going after a lower rating is the almost smothering effect of the concept of good enough, an idea held dear by chiefs, company officers and firefighters. Departments should shoot for the lowest class rating that will affect all homeowners, generally a Class 3 or Class 5. Anything lower than a three or a five, depending on where you are in the country, does not result in a reduction in residential insurance premiums. The best effort for the community should always be the goal. Efforts to drop commercial rates should be examined closely to ensure the cost does not exceed benefits. Every rate reduction can lower commercial rates. Rural areas without water should get, at worst, an ISO Class 8. If your department, like tens of thousands, holds a Class 9, you're not doing nearly enough. Your next move should be developing rural water supply strategies to get a Class 7 or better. Part 2 A Tale of Two Ratings The Rural Rating NFPA 1231-24 C1-1 states: An adequate amount of water for fire control and extinguishment is a major consideration of most rural fire chiefs and influences the majority of their fire fighting decisions. A portion of the training of the rural fire department is taken up with engraving on the minds of the membership the need for the conservation of the meager water supply that is available in many areas. What if you could remove water supply from the command process by simply solving the problem? Here is a successful model to do just that. Last issue we reviewed how the volunteer department in the community where I live achieved one of only 28 ISO Class 1 ratings in the country. This issue we will look at the rural area rating without the benefit of a water system. Many small town fire departments provide protection in an area without hydrants outside the city limits. The ISO rating for all residential property within 1000 of a hydrant was a Class 5 in my community. With only 24 hydrants maybe 70 structures fell under that category. The rest of the 3,400 homes and trailers within five miles of a fire station had an ISO Class 8. Everything outside of 5 miles, with some 1600 housing units was a Class 10. With just about everyone in the county paying the highest possible insurance rates I suggested as the consultant that it was time to take action! The regional ISO offices top guy told the chiefs not to try because it would risk our city rating! For a time the issue was dead. Several fire service big shots with lousy rural ratings also told the officers it wasnt possible to drop the rural rating. The best rural rating at the time was Parker, Colorados Class 5 using a mix of shuttle and hydrants. I stuck to my guns and eventually convinced the chiefs to go for it. As long as I did most of the work, the officers didnt have much of a problem with the effort. The final straw was a much smaller town in southern Nevada with a much better rating who went contrary to ISOs suggestions on rural ratings. An ISO Batch Report was requested listing the needed fire flows for big structures throughout the county. It also provided the data to determine the number of apparatus and firefighters needed for full credit. One early goal was to expand the insurance coverage area from the current 18 square miles to 245 (only 3 1/2 square miles is hydranted) and offer the same insurance rates as those in town. Where most communities have a Class 9 outside of 1000 from a hydrant we would shoot for a Class 9 out to 10 miles from all the fire stations. The ISO planned to be in town for 10 days. I hoped that if all worked as well as it had with other departments I had helped, where the combined ratings took as little as 3 hours, that a week would be plenty, as long as enough time was devoted to preparing simple, easy to understand records in the form of a play book. When it was over, the combined city and rural rating took just 3 1/2 days. The play book was four volumes and over 18 inches thick. With the city rating complete, certain aspects of the grading transferred directly to the rural areas: Communications, training, and pump capacity credit totaled 22.2 out of a possible 24 points. Everything else would be new. ISO credited 1.69 points out of 4 for incomplete distribution of apparatus in the rural areas. It didnt make economic sense to have an engine every 1 1/2 miles and a truck company every 2 1/2 miles in such a sparsely populated area. We chose to simply take our licks in that category. Engine company credit was 9.77 out of 10 due to the small pumps on three older rigs. Service company credit was 3.29 out of 5 because some older units were missing salvage covers, hose hoists, pike poles, sawzalls, hand lights, and two ladders. Reserve service company and engine company credit was 0.66 and 0.97 respectively out of 1 point in each category. Once again pump size and missing equipment came into play. Staffing was only 7.27 out of 15. Like many volunteer departments, this one was not staffed properly to deal with two significant events at one time and paid the price in points. The starting point total was 45.85 points out of a possible 60 in Fire Department and Communications. Unless the department could move a lot of water those points wouldnt count and the rating would be an ISO Class 8. Unlike the city rating that only required individual efforts of a few firefighters to attain, the rural effort would require every member to participate in certain aspects and have more than a basic understanding of the concept of water movement. To get a rural rating you have to prove you can do what you say you can do. If you lose water at any time or commit a safety violation the grading is over and ISO guy leaves town. The rating reverts to a Class 10. You can reapply one year later. The department had never conducted tanker shuttle exercises or relays previously, and they werent setup for it. Drafting was something rarely used. The existing rating only required moving 200 gpm for 20 minutes. The newly needed fire flow would be 4,000 gpm for 3 hours. The flow had to start within ISOs tight time lines and be sustained without interruption or you failed. In a nut shell all the department had to prove was that it could move more water outside of town with out hydrants than it could in town with hydrants. With this information I set about designing a simple system to move 720,000 gallons of water. The highest fire flows on the Batch Report were, of course, in all directions from the station and within 3 to 10 miles of a water fill-point for a tanker shuttle. If a shuttle was to be successful, it would need extremely fast fill and dump times to work. After a short discussion with the city water department we agreed to break from rural water supply traditions and install six-inch overhead fill pipes with 8 to 14 plumbing attached to the city water mains and place them at every entrance to the community. The performance goal was to be able to fill a 7,000 gallon tanker in less than a minute to support rural fires. The county road department already owned a number of mobile and fixed overhead fill pump stations to supplement the city overhead fills. These were strategically placed throughout the county and available by radio. All tankers would need to dump their loads in 2 minutes or less. This would require adding dump valves and jet dumps to existing apparatus. At that fill and dump rate, it was determined only thirteen 4,000 gallon tankers and 45,000 gallons worth of dump tanks would be need in conjunction with the existing fleet of fire apparatus to move the required fire flow the ISO way. How do you get 13 tankers when the four closest mutual aid departments are 33, 40, 50 and 60 miles away? The low cost simple way was to provide and install warning lights, a 14 dump valve, a radio, and pager for every willing privately owned water truck, every publicly owned water truck and on federal government water tankers in the city and county. The owners signed a letter of agreement, and if needed, change the city and county codes as they related to issuing business licenses to mandate all water trucks will be capable of supporting fire department operations and that they must train with the fire department quarterly. Before it was over, more tanker owners were requesting setup than money was available to outfit. The end result was over 82,000 gallons of water on wheels. Under my brilliant tutelage and a little joint training the department then learned how to shuttle. The hard part was not teaching the guys how to shuttle but getting the officers to manage the operations without getting involved hands-on and to follow their own rules. The officers seemed to have a hard time understanding the entire concept of tanker shuttle operations. The firefighters will do whatever they are told, even if it is wrong. It could just be pride but on occasion the obvious questions were not being asked and the officers just winged it or made up rules as they went. They wasted a lot of time in the process. Using ISOs speed limit of 35 mph, requirement to flow water within 5 minutes of arrival, increase the fire flow within 10 minutes of the initial flow, and using their rigid formulas we were able to shuttle; 7,774 gpm one mile, 5,503 gpm 2 miles, 4,315 gpm 3 miles, 3,670 gpm 4 miles, 3,082 gpm 5 miles, 1,913 gpm 10 miles, and 1451 gpm 15 miles. Even with the handicaps imposed by all the rules, all flows exceeded ISO fire flow requirements listed on the batch report, and other high flow buildings the grader located during the visit. Fire crews then had to prove using ISO rules that 5 inch relays to 12,800 feet supplied from draft sites could backup all the operations and/or replace or supplement them. Options were designed to allow relays to 20,900 feet with hose laid at 35 miles per hour. This required setting up each rig to draft through dual suction lines in 90 seconds with a crew of one. Crews had to lay an extremely long supply line from the draft source without exceeding 35 mph, pull an attack line and flow water, and transition from tank water to draft water before the attack rig ran out of water. Simultaneously, the supply engine had to go to draft and supply the attack engine. ISO then used hydraulic calculations to credit fire flows for various lays. One meeting of the membership pointed out the possibility that not owning a few thousand feet of 5 hose could risk the rating in certain areas and cost the community millions of dollars. The idea was to simply fill the supply beds of each rig and lay dual supply lines on certain high flow fires instead of going to relay. That way, what few engines the department owned would not be subtracted as supply engines from the rating. It is hard to believe, but many of the officers were against spending any money or asking the elected officials for the financial support. Many of them lived in areas without water. Just months before the Mayor said in a council meeting, Are you sure you have enough. and You dont have to take low bid. No question about it, he was looking to support the volunteers. I guess it was just pride, or fear of asking. Fire departments should never lose sight of who they work for. Im not sure that the elected government leaders shouldnt have made a decision of that magnitude. There was no question, there were numerous places where larger hose loads would pay huge dividends in the city and out in the sticks but in this case the departments leadership put their heads in the sand and passed. These types of issues when identified during an ISO rating will at some point have a devastating impact on the community if not acted upon. It is awfully hard to fight fire without water. In the end the decision cost one entire class in the rating. All 350 miles of irrigation ditches and ponds were identified and located on a map as potential draft sites. All structures in the county were located on maps to identify sources of supply. City hydrants were identified as potential sources of supply. All roads were labeled with markers, where each unit in a relay should start to drop their loads of hose. Many relays were engineered for 4 to 6 engines in line with lays to 3 miles in some cases. The rural water supply point totals were better than the City hydranted areas capturing 34.93 points out of 35. Draft sites received 2.65 out of a possible 5 points. Even though the department proved they could get a draft from a ditch faster than they could get water from a hydrant the ISO rules docked them almost 50% credit for the draft points. The final results were an ISO Class 3. The lowest rating of any fire department in the country without a municipal water system. The previous bests were other volunteer groups in Apple Valley, California, Dolores, Colorado, Beatty, Nevada and Collegedale, Tennessee all with ISO 4s. During our review of the ISOs Classification Details and Improvement Statements we noticed errors in their record keeping that easily allow the department to be a Class 2. That rating should be in effect shortly in the rural area. The Class 2 or 3 rating without a water system is much more impressive than the towns Class 1 with a water system. When the rating results were in the department was awarded the lowest rating ever given to any department in the categories of Fire Department Supply and Municipal ratings. What does dropping someones rating from a 10 to a 2 or a 3 accomplish? Businesses started appearing in the rural areas that normally would have located in a larger town with a water system. It simply costs them less to do business here. Depending on the carrier, residential rates dropped 38.5% to 63.6% on the average home. That is $251 to $510 a year per home for the next fifteen years. City and rural residential rates are now the same. Overall residential saving are around $2 million a year or $31 million over the rating period. Commercial properties can expect 50% to 500% savings. Renters insurance will drop as much as 50%. These amounts when added to the residential savings are staggering. The department is able to return the yearly taxpayer investment in fire protection in the rural areas every 28 days. The department will be able to return 13 times more than it takes in from the taxpayers. Not only did the rating drop but the population now has a much improved fire protection system in place. Currently the ISO is the only independent accreditation system that measures performance objectively and offers a substantial return on your investment. Larry Davis says in his Rural Water Supply book that ISO Fire Department Supply ratings allow, Fire Departments whether they are in Nikiski, Alaska, Hayden, Colorado, or Muse, PA can be compared on a fair performance basis. According to the FIRE CHIEFs HANDBOOK, ...until something else comes along which allows a fire department to evaluate how good a job it is doing compared to like fire departments ...the ISO classification is the only means available... Another is a happy public who knows they cant pay less for fire insurance! Side Bar. In the new world of customer relations and added value, what better message can the fire service offer than savings on top of all the firefighting, rescue, and EMS services? Maybe it is time you look into what an improved ISO rating offers your community. No fire department should have an ISO 9 or 10. It is too easy to have an 8 or better. No citizen should have to pay excessive rates especially when in many cases a lack of paper work or an incomplete understanding of the rating process is all that is holding the department back and the taxpayers down. Quantify for your elected officials just how much you save the community and what you could save the community if they simply invested in the fire department, instead of high fire insurance rates afforded by an inferior fire department, water system, and dispatch system. If the savings exceed the cost, it should be a no brainer for the elected officials and public to pass some your way. One side benefit will be a community that is friendlier to business and new development. Did it make sense in Norwood Redvale Fire District in Colorado to drop from a 9 to a 7 and save each homeowner $80 a month? If the public ever found out that we chose not to take action, and we were making no efforts to improve things, they might just run us out of town. Like the ISO Class 2 Atlanta Fire Department says, the level of service delivered by the Atlanta Fire Department provides a minimum savings to property owners of $67,390,185 in annual insurance premiums.