For most, County ISO rating stays at a 6 of 10

Points lost for longer than national average deployment times, having firefighters on scene to battle blazes

Good news for most of Polk County’s homeowners: the Insurance Service Organization’s five-year rating for the Polk County Fire Department ultimately remained unchanged despite a new scale.

True for most county homeowners, but a small portion will see their ISO rating increase drastically.

Residents who live within a five-mile radius of a fire department will remain at an ISO rating of 6 out of 10, as compared to the previous rating of a 6 out of 9.

That means for some residents – especially those within range of the automatic aid agreements between Polk County Fire Department, Rockmart Fire and Rescue and Bartow County Fire Department – will actually see their ratings settle at a 6 after being at 7s, according to Public Safety Director Randy Lacey.

Lacey, who oversees the volunteer-based department as well as acting as the Emergency Management Director for Polk County, said that some homeowners currently out of the

Points lost for longer than national average deployment times, having firefighters on scene to battle blazes

five-mile radius of a fire station should be prepared to see an increase in their homeowner’s insurance.

Specifically, a corner of northwest Polk County around Mountain Home Road and Jackson Chapel Road will see their ISO ratings increase to a 9. Lacey predicted this will also lead to an increase in the cost of homeowners insurance payments for residents on those roads.

Other homeowners saw ratings fall, mainly in the Van Wert area from a 9 to a 6 because of the automatic aid agreement in place with Rockmart Fire and Rescue, along with those in the Taylorsville area covered by Bartow County.

Though Polk County kept its rating overall, the scoring in several areas to come up with the final figures were lacking.

Lacey said those areas the county got credit above and beyond were in equipment – having more than enough to battle common structure fires. The department also got due credit for having good pumper capacity if needed to battle bigger blazes.

Education programs, providing common risk reduction planning for commercial and industrial facilities, and even going around and changing smoke detectors are also areas where Polk County got credit.

Lacey said the county fell short in three main areas.

The first is the amount of time that it takes for firefighters to get on the scene.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA,), which the ISO uses to benchmark what they call a deployment analysis, came in at a 1.64 out of 10 for the county’s average response time on a fire, well below the standards expected.

“When a call comes into 911 to dispatch and arrive on a scene, they call that deployment time,” Lacey said. “They did a deployment analysis on our last 40 structure fires and the amount of time it took to get firefighters out on the scene.”

The NFPA calls for firefighters to first arrive on the scene of a structure fire – whether it is a small storage barn that is burning or a kitchen in flames because of grease – within five minutes of a call to 911 from four different stations.

The rest of the county’s stations are expected to arrive at a call within 10 minutes of the fire being reported to 911.

Lacey said that with stations not always responding to calls, and it taking longer than the NFPA standards to get to calls when volunteer firefighters respond and have to pick up engines and pumper trucks, it causes the score to decrease drastically.

The second item Lacey said the organization found Polk County well below standards was in the personnel available to fight a fire. Out of 15 possible points, the county got .73.

“That’s if you include myself and Kattie (Trammell) as officers at a scene,” he said. “And if there isn’t another chief at a fire, then I don’t count because I’m in command.”

The same 40 structure fires analyzed for response times were also used to provide averages for the personnel analysis, Lacey said.

“We have a few areas of deficiency, and I think we’re all aware of it,” he said.

The county also scored well below expectations on training evaluations, getting 1.94 out of a possible 9 points.

Lacey said that training opportunities aren’t the problem. Volunteers are required to keep up with their own yearly training hours, he explained, and when those hours lapse, it effects the ISO rating for the county overall.

Other areas where the county received credit were in ensuring that flow testing is done on all the hydrants within the unincorporated areas.

However, because the pressure of the overall water system is not rated for fire suppression but drinking water, Lacey said that it also hurt the score some. The county scored 22.87 out of 40 possible points.

The fire department also benefited on their scoring for education by maintaining their facebook page with regular posts.

Moving forward to improve the number for the next five years, Lacey has some clear goals in mind. He wants to focus on improving deployment times to fires by also fixing the personnel problem, whether by recruiting volunteers who can work during daytime hours or putting together a plan to hire firefighters to work in stations during times when volunteers aren’t available.