Jones County fire official outlines steps to raise ISO rating from Class 5

At an April 2025 Jones County work session, a fire department representative briefed the county's commissioners on the county's Insurance Services Office (ISO) classification and described a package of staffing, water-system and equipment changes intended to raise the county's score.

The presenter said Jones County's current ISO point total is 53.59, “which pushes in that class 5 category,” and walked commissioners through line-item scores for water capability, communications, apparatus, personnel and training. The official said the county scored about 29.5 out of 40 on water-system capability and 8.75 out of 10 on communications, among other component scores.

Why it matters: ISO class ratings are used by insurers to help set property insurance premiums; local officials said moving from a Class 5 closer to Class 4 or better could deliver countywide cost and coverage benefits. The presenter described a mix of relatively low-cost documentation and training changes and longer-term capital needs such as additional water mains, service units and reserve apparatus.

Key points the presenter described included improving hydrant locations and flow-testing records, adding or fully equipping reserve and service units, increasing on-duty and certified volunteer staffing, and strengthening training documentation and pre-fire planning.

The presenter identified several concrete gaps and near-term steps: - Water-system capability: scored roughly 29.5 of 40; the department must add hydrants, extend mains in higher-density residential areas and maintain annual flow-testing policies and records to improve the score. - Reserve and service apparatus: reserve-apparatus credit was reported at 0.2 of 0.5 because one reserve vehicle lacks full equipment; the presenter said the county must assemble a list of equipment to bring reserves to full credit and that some existing county apparatus could be re-equipped. The presenter said a ladder company is not currently required under ISO because the county has no structures taller than three stories but recommended dedicated service units for credit. - Personnel and deployment: the fire-quality block showed a low score in part because of on-duty staffing levels. The presenter said the audit counts one on-duty paid person as a 1-to-1 equivalent while volunteers count as three to equal one paid person. He told the commission that “a minimum on all structure of our calls, it takes 15 personnel.” He discussed strategies to raise that number by increasing on-duty shifts, adding certified volunteers and considering incentive or stipend models. - Training and documentation: the department's training score has improved since 2019 through policy and documentation changes; the presenter said documentation verbiage is essential and pointed to an implementation of QR-code read receipts for officer development to improve record-keeping.

Costs and trade-offs: the presenter gave illustrative cost signals: one additional fire apparatus (a 'fire knocker'/service unit) could cost roughly $400,000; a full step up to higher classes would require more substantial investments such as additional stations, more on-duty personnel and expanded water distribution. He urged the commission to weigh the marginal cost versus the incremental ISO points that investment would buy.

Timeline and next steps: the presenter said he wants the county's documentation, policies and procedural changes implemented by June 2025 so the department will have a full year of data in 2026, and suggested requesting an ISO re-evaluation about 12 to 18 months after implementation. He listed specific near-term items the department will pursue: finish equipping reserve units and a service unit, increase documented training hours, expand pre-fire planning inspections for county commercial structures and improve flow-test record-keeping.

Commission discussion centered on operational coordination with the city fire service and dispatch. Commissioners and other speakers raised concerns about automatic aid and paging protocols, saying county stations sometimes do not receive automatic page-outs even when closer to an incident. The presenter and board members said the county's CAD (computer-aided dispatch) programming and interagency protocols should be reviewed so the nearest qualified unit is dispatched.

Ending: The presenter said the department has improved since the last audits and recommended a mix of low-cost documentation and training changes along with targeted equipment purchases. He said reaching Class 4 would likely require roughly five additional points and that each step up the ISO scale carries increasing staffing and capital requirements; the county will return to budget planning with those estimates.