Urbana FD Earns Class 1 ISO

In news that helps lower your insurance costs (for homes and businesses) a variety of local government and agencies have made it possible for Urbana Fire Department to join Champaign Fire Department's last few years with a Class 1 ISO rating. From the News-Gazette today:

Urbana Fire Department joins Champaign among top rated in nation
For fire departments, earning a Class 1 rating from the Insurance Services Office is the dream. The inspections are so rigorous that this year, just 305 of the more than 46,000 departments certified by the agency across the country earned that designation.

Only 16 of them are in Illinois — and Champaign County now has two, as the Urbana Fire Department has joined its sister agency across Wright Street in the exclusive Class 1 club...

Though full of confidence, Urbana's department wasn't in for an easy inspection. In calculating its Public Protection Rating, the ISO looks at four factors: the fire department, the needed fire flow — the amount of water an engine needs to put out a fire — water supply and distribution, and emergency communications. So it's not just the fire department that gets scrutinized with a fine-toothed comb every year, but also METCAD and Illinois American Water.

The ISO grades communities on a 100-point scale, and anything above 90 earns a Class 1 rating. Urbana got a 90.92 this year, with the fire department scoring 42.02 out of 50, Illinois American Water scoring 36.65 out of 40 and METCAD scoring 9.55 out of 10.

That 9.55 score elated METCAD Director Ralph Caldwell.

"Obviously, it's stressful, because our evaluation impacts other organizations, not just METCAD," Caldwell said. "But we pride ourselves in doing the right thing at the right time and meeting their guidelines to get first responders to the scene quickly. We scored very high, but we couldn't have done it without everyone else. We're one family. We're brothers and sisters."

Full article with additional information here. Champaign County's METCAD system handles calls for 25 Fire Departments including Champaign and Urbana Fire Departments as part of its emergency dispatch services. This is on top of their services to 12 area police departments. It's an impressive collaborative agency with employees of the City of Champaign, an Urbana location, in a County building, and U of I phone systems. It's board has administrative and public safety representatives from local governments, the University of Illinois and rural representatives of police and fire departments.

The two fire departments are also part of MABAS 28 regional response for HAZMAT and other collaborations as well.