What does the City Fire Department's top protection ranking mean for you?

At Monday's City Council meeting, Fire Chief Marion Blackwell announced an achievement for our city's fire department that places it among the nation's leaders, as the Insurance Services Office (ISO) has recognized the city's fire protection services as Class 1, up from its previous Class 2 rating. The classification, known as the Public Protection Classification (PPC) program, assesses the fire-protection efforts in a particular community. ISO collects information on municipal fire-protection efforts in communities throughout the United States. In each of those communities, ISO analyzes the relevant data using its Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS). The company then assigns a Public Protection Classification from 1 to 10. Class 1 generally represents superior property fire protection, and Class 10 indicates that the area's fire-suppression program doesn't meet ISO's minimum criteria. The ISO 1 rating is validation of the superior services City residents receive. Only 204 of nearly 47,700 — 0.4 percent — fire protection service agencies in the nation have earned the ISO 1 rating. Today on the podcast, we're talking with Chief Blackwell about the new rating, and what it means for city residents, both for their pocketbooks and for their safety.