What Is an ISO Class?

ISO stands for Insurance Service Organization. It is a group of professionals trained to evaluate almost every fire department located in the United States. Insurance carriers use ISOs to determine the quality of fire protection available in a community so they can figure out insurance rates.

Ratings

• An ISO bases a fire department's rating on the number of on-duty firefighters, the training levels of paid and volunteer firefighters, the amount of water the fire department has access to and the equipment (and quality of equipment) available to them.

ISO Ratings

• Rankings range from 1 to 10, with 1 being the best and 10 being the worst. An ISO Class 3 rating is a very good rating especially for a department that has both paid and volunteer staff. Class 1 is very difficult to achieve as it means total fire protection. Departments that are outside city limits tend to receive Class 8 or 9 because of extended response times and lack of water supply.

Requirements

• A few essential requirements for fire departments to receive an ISO Class 3 or 4 rating include having pumper capacity to put out fires in any building in the community, having a 24-hour central dispatch, conducting yearly tests on all equipment and having a minimum number of firefighters active in the department to respond to alarms.