FARMINGTON – Town officials are seeking recommendations to improve the town’s public protection classification rating. They’re also questioning a couple of areas where the Fire Rescue Department lost points.
Overall, Farmington received a good rating of Class 5/10, Fire Chief Terry Bell said Monday. Insurance Services Office Inc., based in New Jersey, grades departments on a scale of 1 to 10, with lower numbers being best.
The first number listed, Class 5, applies to properties within five miles by road of a fire station and within 1,000 feet of a fire hydrant. The second number, 10, applies to properties beyond 1,000 feet of a fire hydrant but within the defined distance of a fire station. The company generally assigns Class 10 to properties beyond the defined distance of a fire hydrant, according to the company’ information.
Insurance Services Office Inc.’s public protection classification program classifies communities using criteria called the Fire Suppression Rating Schedule, according to its Web site. The schedule incorporates standards developed by the National Fire Protection Association and the American Water Works Association with the intent to provide useful benchmarks to measure the effectiveness of fire departments’ efforts and plan for improvements.
The company supplies information to insurance companies, with most factoring it in to calculate homeowners’ insurance.
Fire departments are graded on a number of items, including telephone service, receiving and handling of fire alarms by dispatch services, fire hydrants, trucks, equipment and personnel.
Towns in Franklin County range from Class 5/9 in Strong to 9/10 in Carthage, Chesterville, Industry, New Vineyard and Weld.
Bell went over the results of the company’s analysis with selectmen on Aug. 23. The board directed Town Manager Richard Davis to send a letter to the company to question some of the items that didn’t receive full credit and to find out what can be done to improve the rating.
Bell said Monday that most of those items would cost a lot of money to fix: more fire stations, more firetrucks, more firefighters and more training sessions.
Bell said he disagreed with some of the company’s decisions and felt that some of the grading methods were outdated.
“I think they should judge us on dollar loss over a five-year period,” Bell said.
One item the department lost points on was not having the Fire Department’s telephone number listed under fire departments in the white pages of the phone book. The state’s universal 911 number for emergency services including fire departments is listed in the front of the phone book and under the town’s listing, which also has the department’s nonemergency number.
Another score Bell disagreed with was points lost for not conducting annual truck inspections in the same month as they did the year before. The inspections are done annually, he said.
The company also recommends four firefighters on each of the town’s three engines and six people on the ladder truck each time they go out. The town has 32 on-call volunteer firefighters and Bell, the only full-time firefighter. On average, 11 firefighters respond to a call.
Bell measured every road from the fire station recently and decided that one way to bring the 10 rating down would be to put a fire station in the Fairbanks area, which would take care of South Strong and New Vineyard roads, but it may not solve a possible problem near Clearwater Pond in Industry. Another way is to get more tanker trucks. The department has applied for a grant to buy one.
“I’m a firm believer with the equipment we’ve been provided by citizens of Farmington, we do a very good job with whatever happens,” Bell said.
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