Fire Department receives highest rating from ISO

by Rachel Dahl -- Representatives from the Insurance Service Office presented Mayor Ken Tedford with the ISO Public Protection Classification Summary Report, last week for the Fallon Churchill Volunteer Fire Department. The department was awarded an ISO rating of Class 1. ISO looks at the quality of public fire protection and a Class 1 distinction represents "superior fire protection." Andy Bolton and Mike DiMaggio from ISO made the presentation to the mayor, the city council, and the officers from the fire department. During the presentation, Bolton said that “47,500 fire protection districts are graded by the ISO, and only 373 are Class 1 rated.” According to Fire Chief Jared Dooley, ISO began working with the fire department on August 13, 2019 on a recertification survey of the department, a process that happens every five years. “During the survey, they review our community water supply, our equipment, our stations, our trainings and they run all that data through their system and make score of 1-100, and if you’re a 100 to 90 you’re a class one, 80 to 90 you’re a two,” said Dooley. “An interesting thing to know about the department is last year there were over 10,880 hours of training done by volunteers.” Dooley said the ISO rating is one of the factors considered in the establishing of the homeowners’ insurance rates. “Having an ISO rating of Class 1 helps us to pay a lower rate.” The Fallon Churchill Volunteer Fire Department is the nation's first volunteer fire department to receive an ISO Class 1 rating and has maintained that rating since 1995. The fire department is one of four departments out of 103 Nevada fire departments to be rated ISO Class 1. This is a huge undertaking,” said Dooley, “and could not be done without the full support of the county and the city, the fire department puts in a lot of hours and we have a lot of great equipment but that’s only with their support. The city and the county are really on board fully when it comes to supporting the department and it makes our jobs possible.”       Support local, independent news – contribute to The Fallon Post, your non-profit (501c3) online news source for all things Fallon. Never miss the local news -- read more on The Fallon Post home page.