Arlington ISO 1 Rating

Last night at our Council meeting the Mayor was presented a plaque from the State Fire Chief stating that the City of Arlington will become rated an ISO 1 city on March 1st.  Chief Jim Self was responsible for having the ISO inspector come to Arlington and working with him.  The last time this was done was 11 years ago.  This is the first inspection under the management of Chief Don Crowson. I have written an article explaining ISO previously and I will re-post the meat of the content so that the rating can be understood:

The ISO stands for Insurance Service Office which is a for profit organization that looks at various Fire Departments and rates their attributes.  This is an antiquated system that many insurance companies don’t use any more.  The largest underwriter in the U.S. is State Farm Insurance and they use a system called Public Protection Classification which divides the city into zip codes.  The ISO rating uses four main classifications:  (1) Emergency Communications 10 pts, (2) Fire Department 50 pts. (3) Water Supply 40 pts and extra points for (4) Community Risk Reduction.  An ISO difference from a 1 rating to a 2 rating does not change insurance rates of residences 1 penny.  

So let’s look at each category: (1) Emergency Communications,   Arlington has an exemplary communications system that is accredited every 3 yrs.  We updated our communication 2 yrs. ago with a new digital communications system and is one of six cities in the U.S. with EMAP accreditation.  (2) Fire Department,  This has to do with mostly training type/personnel and response times.  When it comes to our firefighters and department I will stack them up against any department in the U.S.  (3) Water Supply This mostly deals with flow supply for fire suppression, and the number of fire hydrants near suppression points.  Community Risk Reduction,  these extra points deal with fire prevention, safety education, and investigation.  Now let’s look at the last ISO rating accomplished in Arlington.  The score was 84.4.  Communications received 7.6 pts.  Water received 36.2 pts. but the biggest reduction was the Fire Department itself with a 38.7 pt. rating out of 50 possible pts.  The biggest reduction was in the amount of training per firefighter.  This would indicate that the Fire Chief and the Firefighters aren’t doing enough, right?  Wrong!  The last report was accomplished in 2007 before Don Crowson was the Chief.   The remaining points were added in community risk.


I want to stress the fact that this is the first time that the City has been looked at under the management of Chief Crowson.  He and his management team have done a remarkable job of updating and managing the fire department.  He came to Council and got $7 mil for the new radio dispatch system.  He and his team have set up training schedules to insure that our fire department has all the tools necessary for any contingency.  This along with all the rest of the awards that the fire department has received is proof of his leadership capabilities.  Yet the union wants him fired.  That is the reason that I cannot support the fire union in Arlington. 

This ISO doesn't save the citizen a penny in insurance premiums, however it does save businesses on their insurance premiums.  So if businesses want to come to Arlington to do business this is an enticement that helps them.  Congratulations to Chief Crowson and his entire management staff for this accomplishment.  And Congratulations to the Arlington Fire Department.