Thursday, April 18, 2024
The Gatesville City Council has received details of a recent Insurance Services Office (ISO) inspection related to the Gatesville Volunteer Fire Department's ability to fight structure fires, and the city was rated a 4 in its public protection classification.
Communities receive a rating of 1 to 10, with a score of one being the best rating. Gatesville’s latest rating is the same it received in the last inspection, in 2015. These inspections are done about every seven years, said Gatesville Fire Chief Billy Vaden.
"The ISO inspection is related to how effective you are at structural firefighting," Vaden said, adding that responding to other emergencies such as grass fires and accidents does not factor into that rating.
Vaden said the highest rating the city has received was "about 15 years ago, when we scored a 69.85. We almost achieved a Class 3 rating that year."
In the most recent inspection, the city received 62.49 points.
"We've lost seven points in the last 15 years, and what we need to do is prevent losing any more and push back toward a higher score. We will look at areas where we did a poor job and where we can improve."
One of the areas where the city received a low score was on the number of firefighters. While a full-time professional fire department receives full credit for each firefighter, Vaden said a volunteer fire department only receives one-third credit for each firefighter. Based on that, he said the city only received 26.51 out of 50 possible points.
One way the city is hoping to improve the score is by adding another fire engine, Vaden said, and Gatesville is applying for a $750,000 FAST (Fire, Ambulance and Service Truck) grant to help cover that expense.
"We lost points for not having a second ladder truck, and they start at (a cost of) about a million and a half, so that's not feasible for us," Vaden said.
Another place the city lost a significant number of points was water supply — or flow — for randomly selected hydrants. Out of 40 possible points, the city received 25.63.
"They look at large buildings, and near some of those there was low water flow," Vaden said.
A memorandum given to Council members indicated that of the 2,844 fire departments in Texas, Gatesville is rated in "the top 37% ... it is nearly impossible (and the costs far outweigh the benefits) for a volunteer fire department to achieve a much higher rating."
Mayor Gary Chumley asked if the fire department can appeal anything in the inspection.
"You can appeal, but the only point I'd argue is that we can supply water to an area using multiple hydrants," Vaden said. The inspection only took one hydrant into account when inspecting each area.
Vaden said that a consultant was hired to help the city achieve a higher score in the past.
"Even though it costs a lot for that consultant, he's probably worth the money," Vaden said. "He only charged us $12,000 last time, and this time he wanted $30,000 or $40,000."
Council member Barbara Burrow asked what the positive and negative impacts were for the city's score.
"It mostly affects commercial properties insurance rates," City Manager Bill Parry said.
"What does it take to get to a 3 rating?" Burrow asked.
"The biggest thing would be to increase water flow and to hire a (professional) fire department, and those are the biggest expenses," Vaden said. "It's not a one-year deal (to improve), it takes several years to do it. We'll keep pushing, pushing and pushing.
"One day you'll have a career department. It's getting harder to find volunteer firefighters. The numbers and the dedication is decreasing. It's a hard sell to get people to volunteer — you have to be really dedicated. It's a hazardous job — you never know what's going to happen."
Parry said the 13 fire hydrants that were tested during the inspection were randomly selected, and steps will be taken to improve water flow.
"We're going to use some of our ARPA (American Re Plan Act) fund to put in a 10-inch water line and tie in to additional lines, and that will solve the problem," Parry said.
Resolving the issue completely will be costly, he said.
"This is a $20 million problem," Parry said. "We have to figure out what is a priority and what we're going to fund."
