Understanding Butte-Silver Bow’s ISO Fire Protection Rating

When discussing the future of fire protection in Butte-Silver Bow, one question comes up frequently:

What happens to our ISO rating?

To answer that question, it is important to understand what an ISO rating actually measures — and what it does not.

What Is an ISO Rating?

The Insurance Services Office (ISO), part of Verisk, evaluates community fire protection through its Public Protection Classification (PPC®) program.

Communities are evaluated on a scale ranging from Class 1 to Class 10. Class 1 represents the highest level of recognized property fire protection, while Class 10 indicates that the area does not meet ISO's minimum criteria for recognized fire protection.

ISO does not simply look at whether a community has a fire department. It evaluates the overall system that is available to protect property from fire.

That evaluation includes four major areas:

Fire Department
ISO evaluates fire department capabilities including stations, apparatus, equipment, personnel, training, deployment, and operational considerations.

Water Supply
ISO evaluates whether sufficient water is available for fire suppression, including the capacity of the water system, fire hydrants, and the ability to establish required fire flows.

Emergency Communications
The community's 911 and fire dispatch capabilities are evaluated, including how fire emergencies are received and dispatched.

Community Risk Reduction
Credit can also be given for activities such as fire prevention, fire inspections, public fire-safety education, and fire investigation.

Together, these factors create a numerical score that is used to determine the community's Public Protection Classification.

What Is Butte-Silver Bow's Current ISO Rating?

Butte-Silver Bow currently publishes its ISO classification as Class 4/10.

According to Butte-Silver Bow's webpage, properties that are within 1,000 feet of a fire hydrant and within five miles of a fire station are classified as Class 4.

Properties outside the five-mile fire-station radius are classified as Class 10.

This is important because ISO classifications can vary by property location. Two properties within the same county can therefore have different classifications depending upon their proximity to recognized fire protection and water resources.

Property owners should contact their insurance carrier to determine the classification and insurance impact applicable to their individual property.

Does Career or Volunteer Determine the ISO Rating?

No.

ISO does not assign a better classification simply because firefighters are career firefighters, nor does it automatically assign a worse classification because firefighters are volunteers.

What matters is the fire-protection capability that can be documented and credited under ISO's Fire Suppression Rating Schedule.

That distinction is important in the discussion about the future structure of fire protection in Butte-Silver Bow.

A change in organizational structure, by itself, does not automatically change a community's ISO classification.

What can affect the classification are changes to the actual resources and capabilities ISO evaluates.

What Could Affect Butte-Silver Bow's Rating?

Changes to fire protection should be evaluated based on what happens to the resources behind the ISO rating.

That can include changes involving:

• Recognized fire stations and their locations

• Fire apparatus and equipment

• Available and responding personnel

• Firefighter training

• Deployment and response capabilities

• Emergency communications and dispatch

• Water supply and fire-flow capabilities

• Fire prevention and community risk-reduction programs

For example, Verisk specifically tracks changes involving fire station locations, legally established fire-protection boundaries, and municipal water capabilities because those factors can affect the protection classification applicable to individual properties.

Therefore, the important question is not simply:

"Who owns or operates the fire department?"

The more meaningful question is:

"What fire-protection resources will remain available, recognized, coordinated, trained, equipped, and capable of responding to the community?"

What Would a Unified Fire Service Mean for ISO?

A unified organizational structure does not, by itself, require Butte-Silver Bow's ISO rating to change.

If the stations, apparatus, water supply, communications systems, personnel, training, and other fire-protection capabilities credited by ISO remain available and continue meeting applicable requirements, reorganizing those resources under a unified structure is not the same thing as eliminating fire protection.

ISO evaluates capability.

That means the discussion should focus on what resources and capabilities exist after any organizational change rather than assuming that changing the organizational chart automatically changes the ISO classification.

The Bottom Line

ISO does not grade a community based simply on whether its firefighters are career or volunteer, or whether departments have historically operated under separate names. It grades the fire-protection capabilities available to the community.

For Butte-Silver Bow, the important issue is therefore maintaining — and where possible improving — the resources and capabilities that contribute to the community's existing fire-protection classification.

Organizational change alone should not be confused with a loss of ISO protection.

At the same time, any change that removes, separates, limits, or otherwise alters resources currently contributing to the community's fire-protection system should be carefully evaluated to determine whether those resources would continue to receive ISO credit.

Ultimately, the goal of an ISO classification is not an organizational structure or a number on paper.

It is a measurable indication of the fire-protection capability available to the homes, businesses, and people of the community.

For Information, click the link below to access Verisk website:

https://www.isomitigation.com/ppc/program-works/the-ppc-evaluation-process/