The Insurance Service Office's rating system has come up in discussion at several conferences over the last few years. Some chiefs complained about rating inconsistencies, wasted time and resources, and the lack of direct benefit to their fire departments.

“What should we do? Show us what a paradigm is for a Class 1,” said one fire chief. “It's all firefighting, nothing about life safety or technical rescue. To find 20 hours per guy per month is tough with all the other training we have to fit in.”

Last spring, I was offered an interview with ISO Vice President Mike Waters. By the time we were able to schedule the interview, nine firefighters had been killed in Charleston, S.C., a Class 1-rated department — a rating that had been lauded by the mayor and fire chief.

The ISO rating system, to quote Waters, was created for insurance companies to set insurance premiums for a town or district. The ISO rating system looks to three areas: fire alarm systems and communications, water supply, and staffing.

State Farm, however, doesn't rely on ISO ratings to set local fire insurance rates. Instead they look to local fire-loss history both to indicate future fire events and subsequent insurance payouts and to examine the effectiveness of local fire prevention resources. Insurance premiums are then set by zip code — which can be confusing because postal boundaries don't always match fire department response areas.

Another concern with the ISO rating system is the lack of a timely review period. In a follow-up interview, Waters said that ISO was evaluating the use expiration dates on the ratings.

Fire department accreditation already sets those limits. The Center for Public Safety Excellence Inc. exists with a mission to “promote continuous quality improvement.” One CPSE section, the Commission on Fire Accreditation International, is committed to assisting fire and emergency service agencies achieve organizational and professional excellence through strategic self-assessment. The CFAI accreditation process not only focuses on suppression, but also on life safety and all aspects of a department.

“If an agency is just looking at ISO, they are looking at 5% to 15% of their work,” said CPSE Executive Director Thomas Wieczorek. “CFAI is a different way of looking at things. What do you do before you put water on a fire?”

Any agency can participate in the accreditation process. Registration is $350 and good for three years. Actual costs of the accreditation process are based on population and can run from $2,000 to $10,000 over a five-year period. Accredited departments must file a compliance report every year following the recommendations from their peer review team and must repeat the process after five years. The CFAI system holds departments accountable and is the closest thing to an international certification process that fire and emergency service agencies have.

“The ISO rating system is only for insurance companies — companies that make a profit,” said an Illinois fire chief. “They come in and ask departments to run the drills and tests at cost to taxpayers. The insurance break from an ISO 4 to an ISO 1 is zero.”

A Wisconsin fire chief simplified the issue: “Do you have enough water? Do you have enough staff? Can you answer the phone when it rings? Can you put the fire out?” The answers to those questions today — and the answers year after year — are “… a benchmark that can really be applied to any business.”

Perhaps the problems with the ISO rating system really come down to misinterpretation by departments and how they market their rating. A competitive nature is the by-product of a numerical rating system.

Moving from being an ISO Class 4 to a Class 1 certainly is an achievement. But with fire calls at an all-time low and EMS calls the bulk of responses, a fire chief can't afford to become complacent because of a low number based on one area of the operation.

It's time for an accurate, accountable benchmark for today's fire and emergency services.