ISO stands for Insurance Services Office. This group rates all fire departments in the US, including both paid and volunteer departments, based on their ability to suppress structure fires within their communities. Insurance companies use the scores assigned to each department to determine their insurance rates for customers. The rating is from 1 to 10, with 1 being the best. Wall VFD has earned a Public Protection Class (PPC) 6/10, up from our previous 7/10. This PPC 6/10 is very difficult to obtain without fire hydrants. The 6 PPC is available for any homeowner or business within 5 road miles of our station to be considered for lower insurance rates. We have participated in four ISO evaluations since 1999 with intentional improvements each time. The evaluations are a lot of work that is “voluntary” on our part, intended to benefit our customers. Many volunteer departments do not participate because of the time/labor commitment.