OSFM Congratulates Kankakee Fire Department on Iso Class 1 Rating

Springfield, Ill- The Office of the State Fire Marshal offers its congratulations to the Kankakee Fire Department for being awarded an ISO Class 1 Public Protection Classification (PPC) rating!

According to Kankakee Fire Chief Damon Schuldt, "This is truly a great moment for all of us and could not have been achieved without the hard work and diligence of all our personnel. It was a team effort! The new rating places us in an elite group!" Kankakee now joins the list of 23 other Illinois fire departments who have the ISO Class 1 rating.

The Insurance Services Office (ISO) provides statistical information on risk. ISO's rating system evaluates communities in four primary categories:

• Emergency communications systems, including facilities for the public to report fires, staffing, training, certification of telecommunications and facilities for dispatching fire departments.
• The fire department, including equipment, staffing, training and geographical deployment of fire companies.
• The water supply system, including the inspections and flow testing of hydrants and a careful evaluation of the amount of available water compared with the amount needed to suppress fires.
• Community efforts to reduce the risk of fire, including fire prevention codes and enforcement, public fire safety education and fire investigation programs.

ISO is a nation-wide organization that rates more than 46,000 fire departments throughout the United States on their overall ability to respond to fires. Classification ratings range from 1 to 10, with 1 being the top rating. The Public Protection Classification rating is sometimes used by insurance companies to calculate premium rates. Higher classification ratings of a fire department or fire district reflect overall protection, typically leading to better rates received by community members.