Algood Fire Dept. Getting New Pumper Truck

The Algood Fire Department is adding a new pumper truck to its fleet.

Algood Fire Chief Victor Jones said the addition of the new truck will help the city in its goal to lower its ISO rating.

“The truck that we have now is 20-years-old,” Jones said. “It’s still a good truck, but it’s got to its date that on ISO, they don’t classify it as a number 1 truck.”

Jones said the city is currently sitting at a 6 on the ISO rating with a goal of going down to 4. He said in addition to the new pumper truck, the city is also in the process of fixing a water issue that should help in meeting Algood’s goal.

“(ISO) is based upon your insurance and things like that,” Jones said. “They use that number for your insurance cost. Right now we’re a 6. We’re usually at 5, but we went back to 6 because of a water issue. We’re doing a water project this year to take care of that, too. Hopefully by this time next year, we can ask the state to come back in and give us another rating and can’t see if we can lower that ISO rating back to a 5 or a 4.”

ISO stands for Insurance Services Office, which is an independent, for-profit organization. The ISO scores fire departments on how they are doing against its organization’s standards to determine property insurance costs. After analyzing the data it collects, the ISO assigns a Public Protection Classification, or PPC, on a scale from 1 to 10. The higher the ISO fire protection class, with Class 1 being the best, the better the department, at least according to the ISO.

Jones said the fire department should receive the truck within 10-to-12-months. He said the department plans to continue using its older truck.

“It’s an addition,” Jones said. “We’re not going to get rid of the truck we have now. This one will be our primary truck.”

The Algood City Council approved the purchase of the new pumper truck earlier this month.