Thanks to a new rating by Insurance Services Office, West Manatee Fire Rescue is ranked among the top 4 percent of fire departments in the nation.
Fire Marshal Jim Davis announced June 27 WMFR’s rating moved up from class 3 to class 2, ranking the department among the top fire departments. ISO’s scale ranges from 1-10.
In March, the ISO visited WMFR to test the department on its equipment and training, as well as its ability to respond to a fire while timed.
The WMFR scored excellently in virtually every category, Chief Tom Sousa said in March.
The fire department struggled to accomplish a timed task, he said, but ISO offers a mathematical formula to calculate the historical response time in place of the timed test, which improved WMFR’s score.
Sousa explained that due to the nature of the island, the department struggles to dispatch a unit from every station, including Station 1 in Holmes Beach, to the scene of a fire within 12 minutes.
Although one engine team on the mainland can generally reach any mainland location in less than five minutes, the fire engine traveling from island to mainland always takes longer, he said.
The rating is used to calculate fire insurance rates. It goes into effect Oct. 1 and, as a result of the increase, residents and businesses could see fire insurance rates drop, Davis said.
According to Davis, only 1,565 of the nation’s 46,042 fire departments have the same or higher ranking.
– Bianca Benedí