The City of Cottonwood recently underwent a Public Protection Classification review by the Insurance Services Office, Inc.. In this survey, ISO analyzed the structural fire suppression delivery system in the City of Cottonwood and has resulted in the city maintaining a PPC of “Class 2” effective Feb. 1, 2019. The City of Cottonwood initially received a PPC rating of “2” in 2014, which reflected a significant improvement over the previous PPC rating of “4” that it had held since 2001.
The ISO is an independent company that serves insurance companies, communities, fire departments, insurance regulators and others by providing risk information. ISO staff collects information about fire suppression capabilities in capabilities throughout the United States. ISO then analyzes the data and assigns a PPC — a number from 1 to 10. Class 1 represents an exemplary fire suppression system and Class 10 indicates that the area’s fire suppression system program does not meet ISO’s minimum criteria.
The PPC is important to communities and fire departments as it provides a valuable benchmark as to the effectiveness of the fire suppression capabilities provided to their citizens. From a financial standpoint, communities with lower PPC Classes may have lower insurance prices. The City of Cottonwood’s PPC rating of “Class 2” places the city within the top 4 percent of PPC’s within the entire nation.
The City of Cottonwood PPC rating of “2” is the result of a number of factors. The city has significantly improved the water distribution system since acquiring it nearly 15 years ago. These improvements include the upgrading and/or installation of over 150 new fire hydrants, over 1,000,000 gallons additional water storage capability and the installation of miles of increased diameter water lines.
The City of Cottonwood Public Safety Communication Center scored very well in the area of emergency call receiving and dispatching and contributed to the overall high score received by the city.
The Cottonwood Fire Medical Department received the maximum score possible in the area of fire suppression training and fire engine (pumper) capacity.
The Fire Medical Department also scored high in the area of fire prevention due to our proactive approach to preventing fires in our community including the adoption of a fire sprinkler ordinance and our active fire inspection, fire investigation and public fire and life safety education programs.
Article source: http://www.verdenews.com/news/2018/oct/27/cottonwood-receives-public-protection-classificati/