The only service of its kind, the Insurance Services Office’s (ISO) purpose is to review and categorize a community’s ability to fight fires.  The ISO is in all 50 states and has information on more than 43,000 municipalities across the United States.

ISO measures major elements of a community’s fire suppression system, such as personnel training, manning levels of engine and ladder companies, water supply, and distribution systems, receiving and dispatching fire alarms, fire fighting equipment, needed fire flow, and fire company locations.

    The grade is broken down into three sections:
        1.  Water system 40%
        2.  Fire department 50%
        3.  Communications receiving and handling alarms 10%

    By analyzing the data and using criteria outlined in a rating schedule, a field analyst will produce a final classification number for a community.  Each of the 43,000 plus communities are graded from one (1) to ten (10), with one being the best.  This also would mean lower or higher insurance rates depending on the classification number.

    There are just over 30 Class 1 departments and around 300 Class 2 departments in the United States.  Presently, there is not a Class 1 fire department in the state of Arkansas.  There are only four (4) departments in the state that have a Class 2 rating.  They include:
    1.  Searcy Fire Department    
    2.  Little Rock Fire Department
    3.  North Little Rock Fire Department
    4.  Fort Smith Fire Department

    We worked very hard to get the Class 2 rating for this department and work very hard to keep it.  It’s a source of pride for the Searcy Fire Department and to the City of Searcy.