How to improve your department ISO rating


How to improve your department ISO rating... by Chief Michael Cottrell Chapter 4: The Grim Reaper vs. the Golf Shirt and Jeans
The Grim Reaper vs. the Golf Shirt and Jeans: The ISO Auditors are just like you and I The ISO™ guy is in town. He is walking through your department looking and asking subtle little fire service questions. You have noticed you are having a nice general conversation of the recent events of the news, or talking about the latest college sports events. Hey! This audit stuff is pretty easy! We are having a blast! The auditor is really cool! First let me say, the field auditors who represent the ISO™ Office are all pretty decent individuals. You will find that most of them actually have some fire service background. They are typically ex-fire service or hold a current position with a fire department in their local home department. The audit they are performing is their full time job, just like you and I hold. You will notice, they are dressed just like you and I. No they do not wear a black robe carrying a scythe. This is the image that some have envisioned them, “The Grim Reaper”. I will say, “If you are not correctly prepared for the visit, they might as well be the grim reaper once you receive your audit score”. And if you think that is a bad thought, think about how you are going to have to go face your Mayor or the Chairman of the Fire Committee and explain to ALL of them how you flunked an open book test. Don’t get caught off guard! Do your homework, and be ready. If you have questions, follow our columns or email me! The Penalty Flag: Don’t throw the penalty Flag on the home team One hard lesson of the ISO™ audit, are the penalty flags! It is like our Mountaineers winning late in a major bowl game, with only a few seconds left on the game clock. We receive a fifteen yard interference call in the end zone. This is a penalty that sets up the opponent for a game wining score. Man that hurts! Now to address your penalty flags. You must be very careful of what you say and how you say it. For example, you have completed your homework and you know that you have 100% of all the required ISO™ equipment on your first and second out pumper. As you complete your walk through, you start to feel pretty good about the firefighters and yourself. Why? Because you have displayed all of your prized equipment for the auditor when they have requested it. (Actually, you need to be driving the inventory audit, to ensure the Auditor witnesses ALL of the required equipment) Things are cooking! And baby, you are in control! The auditor goes….. “Hmmm”, and says, “I see that you have a set of jaws, a cutter and a ram. Does this pumper respond to auto accidents on a regular basis?” Now being in control and feeling good about the hometown boys, you proudly answer, “Well yes sir! This truck answers all accident calls in the area. We have a fabulous response time and an excellent extrication record.” The auditor will look at you and say, “Excellent”. NOW, that response of “excellent” is referring to your service of helping an individual in the time of need. What the auditor did not tell you, you just classified your prize pumper as a dual purpose apparatus. This does not sound to bad to the untrained ear. But what just happened? You just committed a costly violation, kind of like the Mountaineers committing a personal foul that hits you with a loss of down, fifteen yard penalty, and while we are at it, have two of our own key players ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct. Holly Cow, this is bad! By the way, I can joke about my Mounties, because this West Virginian use to play for them. Not to disclose my age, but that’s going back a ways! Getting back to your pumpers. With the correct testing records, the correct amount of supply line and all of the required equipment that the ISO™ has on their equipment list, you have completed your homework! You should expect a full apparatus credit of 654 points for each pumper. Keep in mind, each engine can score 654 points in your sub-module under the fire department section of the audit. Depending on how many engines you are specified to have, these points are worked into a mathematical equation at the end of the audit. IF you have matched all of the requirements for all of your engine requirements, you can score a perfect 10 points towards the 100 point overall grade. Sound confusing? It’s not really. Hang in there, we will explain all of the little behind the scenes details later in the future columns. Back to the main topic. The work is complete. You’re expecting full credit for your engines. By answering that one question of providing automobile extrication on a first response, caused you to shoot yourself in the foot. Unfortunately ISO™ does NOT look at EMS or Rescue as part of the ISO™ Audit or any part of their perquisite to be a fire department. IF they find out that you are using any of your first line equipment as primary responders for EMS-Rescue it is immediately ruled as a dual purpose apparatus. The final outcome is, you LOOSE 50% of your eligible points. So instead of being granted 654 points for the perfect engine, you only receive 327 points. That hurts! Especially if the truck is only two or three years old and the Mayor or County Boss’s are expecting a full credit score for their financial investment. When it is all said and done, this deduction “could” relate to a loss of a possible .25 point or more on the over all 100 point grading. A quarter of a point does not sound like much, but let me give you a hint. Look at your current ISO™ report, or better yet ask some of your counter parts from adjacent fire departments and compare their score with yours. I can bet you, you will find that somebody, if not all of you just missed a better grade by about .3 to 1 point. To handle that situation, it is easy. The jaws, ram and cutter are all forcible entry tools. And if you have been in the fire service very long at all, chances are you have come across a fire situation where they come in handy to make a fast opening for firefighters. Now, do you respond to auto accidents? Sure, on a mutual aid request. Can the fire service forcible entry tools be used for rescue? Sure they can. Another section under the fire department module that always raises its head, is an area related to personnel and on the scene manpower. Have you ever heard the guys talk about how “they” handled a fully involved house fire with only three or four firefighters? One firefighter runs the pump; the others grab a hose line and go to town. I have heard this story told time and time again. It is always told with a little bragging right, of “Look what we can do!” An auditor loves to come into a department, and as the causal chit chat evolves into the fire business, you will always have some of the guys eventually step in and start. Thinking, honestly that they are helping the department with the audit. After all, they are explaining how efficient and how solid the department team work is. In actuality, we are dropping the penalty flags after each sentence. What this conversation does is prompt the auditor to take a serious look at the sign in sheets that are attached with each structure fire report. They will verify the firefighter’s stories. And at this point, it is to late. You are going to take a hit on the points. Why the hit on points? It is plain and simple. ISO has established a minimum headcount for the three possible personnel structures of a fire department. Translated, a Volunteer fire Department must provide 49 firefighters on scene for each structure fire. Ok, you Fire Chiefs reading this lets take a walk and let your blood pressure drop back down. Yes, that number is correct. ISO says that Volunteer Department needs 49 firefighters on the scene. Really, you only need 48, because one position is reserved for the Chief or delegated OIC. See, it not that as bad as you first thought! We will cover the ways around that little rule in a future column. Meanwhile, remember the ISO rule does not say all of the firefighters have to be from YOUR department. See……I can feel your blood pressure dropping already. Many departments rely on mutual aid, which is a very good policy. What happens though, by having the mutual aid arranged, the department thinks they have the entire basis covered. The truth is, if you only utilize mutual aid as your back up for man power and equipment, then you will only receive a fraction of the points available. So what is the answer Chief ? Very simple, chances are if you’re a volunteer department you will have trouble supplying the minimum number of fire fighters required on EACH structure fire. Notice, I said “Structure Fire”, not trash fire, not a car fire, not a brush fire but “Structure Fire”. Structure fires are the only fires that you will be audited against. Kind of like the thing about rescue, they are related, but all ISO is concerned about is the Structure Fires. So how do you organize yourself to position the department so have enough firefighters on the scene? Mutual aid is a step in the right direction, however it falls short and you will get flagged on it. The answer is, Automatic Aid! What is the difference? You modify your mutual aid agreement that when you receive a structure fire call, one or two other departments will be toned out or notified at the same time as you. (With-out you requesting them to be called – hence automatic aid) Basically you will have a multi-department response to a structure fire in your district. Sounds like an over kill doesn’t it? Remember I told you earlier about some of the rules, they seemed a little one sided, well here you go. The thing to remember is, don’t penalize yourself! Be careful of what you say or your firefighters say during the ISO visit. Most of the time these little penalties happen and you don’t even know it. That bites the big one! To lose points and not know it! If you know the game up front, then you are at least on a semi-even playing field. As with any editorial column that I publish, I invite you to send me your questions. Feel free to contact me via email at: ISOFireChief@yahoo.com Till the next column, Regards, ISOFireChief
About the author: Michael A. Cottrell, Fire Chief for General Motors Corporation, has over 22 years of Fire and Rescue service ranging from Volunteer to Paid from W.Va. to South Carolina, Nebraska and Ohio. In addition to residential fire protection the author has a solid background on high hazard industrial and manufacturing fire protection. More than 16 years experience as a Fire Chief or Chief Line Officer. Training and specialties include; Certified Fire/Rescue Instructor, high angle rescue, confined space rescue, Arson Investigation and former EMT and Medical 1st Responder He offers ISO certification consulting, has extensive knowledge of ISO Certification process and experienced interaction with ISO personnel.

How to improve your department ISO rating...
by Chief Michael Cottrell
Chapter 4: The Grim Reaper vs. the Golf Shirt and Jeans

The Grim Reaper vs. the Golf Shirt and Jeans:
The ISO Auditors are just like you and I

The ISO™ guy is in town. He is walking through your department looking and asking subtle little fire service questions. You have noticed you are having a nice general conversation of the recent events of the news, or talking about the latest college sports events. Hey! This audit stuff is pretty easy! We are having a blast! The auditor is really cool!

First let me say, the field auditors who represent the ISO™ Office are all pretty decent individuals. You will find that most of them actually have some fire service background. They are typically ex-fire service or hold a current position with a fire department in their local home department. The audit they are performing is their full time job, just like you and I hold. You will notice, they are dressed just like you and I. No they do not wear a black robe carrying a scythe. This is the image that some have envisioned them, “The Grim Reaper”. I will say, “If you are not correctly prepared for the visit, they might as well be the grim reaper once you receive your audit score”. And if you think that is a bad thought, think about how you are going to have to go face your Mayor or the Chairman of the Fire Committee and explain to ALL of them how you flunked an open book test. Don’t get caught off guard! Do your homework, and be ready. If you have questions, follow our columns or email me!

The Penalty Flag:
Don’t throw the penalty Flag on the home team

One hard lesson of the ISO™ audit, are the penalty flags! It is like our Mountaineers winning late in a major bowl game, with only a few seconds left on the game clock. We receive a fifteen yard interference call in the end zone. This is a penalty that sets up the opponent for a game wining score. Man that hurts!

Now to address your penalty flags. You must be very careful of what you say and how you say it. For example, you have completed your homework and you know that you have 100% of all the required ISO™ equipment on your first and second out pumper. As you complete your walk through, you start to feel pretty good about the firefighters and yourself. Why? Because you have displayed all of your prized equipment for the auditor when they have requested it. (Actually, you need to be driving the inventory audit, to ensure the Auditor witnesses ALL of the required equipment) Things are cooking! And baby, you are in control! The auditor goes….. “Hmmm”, and says, “I see that you have a set of jaws, a cutter and a ram. Does this pumper respond to auto accidents on a regular basis?” Now being in control and feeling good about the hometown boys, you proudly answer, “Well yes sir! This truck answers all accident calls in the area. We have a fabulous response time and an excellent extrication record.” The auditor will look at you and say, “Excellent”. NOW, that response of “excellent” is referring to your service of helping an individual in the time of need. What the auditor did not tell you, you just classified your prize pumper as a dual purpose apparatus. This does not sound to bad to the untrained ear. But what just happened?

You just committed a costly violation, kind of like the Mountaineers committing a personal foul that hits you with a loss of down, fifteen yard penalty, and while we are at it, have two of our own key players ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct. Holly Cow, this is bad! By the way, I can joke about my Mounties, because this West Virginian use to play for them. Not to disclose my age, but that’s going back a ways!

Getting back to your pumpers. With the correct testing records, the correct amount of supply line and all of the required equipment that the ISO™ has on their equipment list, you have completed your homework! You should expect a full apparatus credit of 654 points for each pumper. Keep in mind, each engine can score 654 points in your sub-module under the fire department section of the audit. Depending on how many engines you are specified to have, these points are worked into a mathematical equation at the end of the audit. IF you have matched all of the requirements for all of your engine requirements, you can score a perfect 10 points towards the 100 point overall grade. Sound confusing? It’s not really. Hang in there, we will explain all of the little behind the scenes details later in the future columns.

Back to the main topic. The work is complete. You’re expecting full credit for your engines. By answering that one question of providing automobile extrication on a first response, caused you to shoot yourself in the foot. Unfortunately ISO™ does NOT look at EMS or Rescue as part of the ISO™ Audit or any part of their perquisite to be a fire department. IF they find out that you are using any of your first line equipment as primary responders for EMS-Rescue it is immediately ruled as a dual purpose apparatus. The final outcome is, you LOOSE 50% of your eligible points. So instead of being granted 654 points for the perfect engine, you only receive 327 points. That hurts! Especially if the truck is only two or three years old and the Mayor or County Boss’s are expecting a full credit score for their financial investment. When it is all said and done, this deduction “could” relate to a loss of a possible .25 point or more on the over all 100 point grading. A quarter of a point does not sound like much, but let me give you a hint. Look at your current ISO™ report, or better yet ask some of your counter parts from adjacent fire departments and compare their score with yours. I can bet you, you will find that somebody, if not all of you just missed a better grade by about .3 to 1 point.

To handle that situation, it is easy. The jaws, ram and cutter are all forcible entry tools. And if you have been in the fire service very long at all, chances are you have come across a fire situation where they come in handy to make a fast opening for firefighters. Now, do you respond to auto accidents? Sure, on a mutual aid request. Can the fire service forcible entry tools be used for rescue? Sure they can.

Another section under the fire department module that always raises its head, is an area related to personnel and on the scene manpower. Have you ever heard the guys talk about how “they” handled a fully involved house fire with only three or four firefighters? One firefighter runs the pump; the others grab a hose line and go to town. I have heard this story told time and time again. It is always told with a little bragging right, of “Look what we can do!” An auditor loves to come into a department, and as the causal chit chat evolves into the fire business, you will always have some of the guys eventually step in and start. Thinking, honestly that they are helping the department with the audit. After all, they are explaining how efficient and how solid the department team work is. In actuality, we are dropping the penalty flags after each sentence. What this conversation does is prompt the auditor to take a serious look at the sign in sheets that are attached with each structure fire report. They will verify the firefighter’s stories. And at this point, it is to late. You are going to take a hit on the points. Why the hit on points? It is plain and simple. ISO has established a minimum headcount for the three possible personnel structures of a fire department. Translated, a Volunteer fire Department must provide 49 firefighters on scene for each structure fire. Ok, you Fire Chiefs reading this lets take a walk and let your blood pressure drop back down. Yes, that number is correct. ISO says that Volunteer Department needs 49 firefighters on the scene. Really, you only need 48, because one position is reserved for the Chief or delegated OIC. See, it not that as bad as you first thought! We will cover the ways around that little rule in a future column. Meanwhile, remember the ISO rule does not say all of the firefighters have to be from YOUR department. See……I can feel your blood pressure dropping already.

Many departments rely on mutual aid, which is a very good policy. What happens though, by having the mutual aid arranged, the department thinks they have the entire basis covered. The truth is, if you only utilize mutual aid as your back up for man power and equipment, then you will only receive a fraction of the points available. So what is the answer Chief ? Very simple, chances are if you’re a volunteer department you will have trouble supplying the minimum number of fire fighters required on EACH structure fire. Notice, I said “Structure Fire”, not trash fire, not a car fire, not a brush fire but “Structure Fire”. Structure fires are the only fires that you will be audited against. Kind of like the thing about rescue, they are related, but all ISO is concerned about is the Structure Fires. So how do you organize yourself to position the department so have enough firefighters on the scene? Mutual aid is a step in the right direction, however it falls short and you will get flagged on it. The answer is, Automatic Aid!

What is the difference? You modify your mutual aid agreement that when you receive a structure fire call, one or two other departments will be toned out or notified at the same time as you. (With-out you requesting them to be called – hence automatic aid) Basically you will have a multi-department response to a structure fire in your district. Sounds like an over kill doesn’t it? Remember I told you earlier about some of the rules, they seemed a little one sided, well here you go.

The thing to remember is, don’t penalize yourself! Be careful of what you say or your firefighters say during the ISO visit. Most of the time these little penalties happen and you don’t even know it. That bites the big one! To lose points and not know it! If you know the game up front, then you are at least on a semi-even playing field.

As with any editorial column that I publish, I invite you to send me your questions.

Feel free to contact me via email at: ISOFireChief@yahoo.com

Till the next column,

Regards,

ISOFireChief

About the author:

Michael A. Cottrell, Fire Chief for General Motors Corporation, has over 22 years of Fire and Rescue service ranging from Volunteer to Paid from W.Va. to South Carolina, Nebraska and Ohio. In addition to residential fire protection the author has a solid background on high hazard industrial and manufacturing fire protection. More than 16 years experience as a Fire Chief or Chief Line Officer. Training and specialties include; Certified Fire/Rescue Instructor, high angle rescue, confined space rescue, Arson Investigation and former EMT and Medical 1st Responder He offers ISO certification consulting, has extensive knowledge of ISO Certification process and experienced interaction with ISO personnel.