Fire departments will undergo testing in October
The county requests testing from the state every few years, at no cost to the county, as it adds infrastructure, such as more fire hydrants, that would improve ratings and ultimately lower home insurance costs for residents in the county's various fire districts.
Barring Bearpond and Epsom fire departments, all volunteer stations and the county fire department will undergo testing in just over a month, County Manager
The county hopes to reduce the
"You're talking about volunteer fire departments -- so they're all volunteers," he said.
This is due to water availability and access. Ratings usually improve as one moves closer to the city, as it has easier access to fire hydrants and other resources. For example,
ISO testing involves both an on-site observed water shuttling simulation, but also requires pre-planning. The departments must submit a packet of information to the state detailing district maps, response time, ability to transport or transfer water, staff hours worked, and more.
The last time the departments set for October testing underwent the rating process -- at least four to five years ago, according to McMillen -- there was no county water system nor paid part-time positions at the volunteer departments.
At that time, the county was in discussions about building a county water system, but had yet to begin construction. It informed residents the undertaking to build a system was the beginning of a long process that would eventually yield lower ISO ratings thanks to increased water lines and therefore, fire hydrants.
The water system has been built in different phases, with the first complete in 2013, the second in 2015, and phase three set for an October completion. In 2018, the county purchased the town of
Now, according to McMillen, the county has about 100 miles of water lines, with hydrants about every 1,000 feet on the eastern side of the
"The actual water shuttle piece [of the testing] is various departments working together to shuttle water from one location to another from a hydrant to a receiving pool and then their time as they do that," McMillen said. "It's not just one department -- they all work together, the county department works together with the volunteer departments and it's simulating a live situation. It is a lot of time and energy that goes into it."
The county also allocated funding this year's budget for two paid part-time firefighter positions at each department except Epsom, which received funding for one position, thus an increase in staff, in anticipation that more people would improve response ratings.
Recently, when
But the county hopes this split rating, which is
Those split rating departments have requested last year to go through testing again so they can participate in water shuttling and hopefully lower ratings across their district. It took the departments a year to get on the state's testing schedule, McMillen said.
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