Palouse earns lower fire rating

Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter | Oct 02, 20140

The city of Palouse has a renewed rating for firefighting capability after an evaluation by the Washington Survey and Ratings Bureau.

The review process takes into account a town’s ability to respond to a fire, then concludes with a rating on a scale of 1-10 — which can affect homeowners’ insurance rates.

For Palouse, regarding fire response inside city limits, the town retained its class six rating while for rural response, it improved from an eight to a seven.

The town’s last bureau review was in 2006, when Palouse’s class seven rating improved to a six.

The rating comes from factors such as a district’s fire equipment, training, apparatuses, effectiveness of dispatch center and the city’s water system and building code enforcement.

“They’re not just looking at your trucks,” said Palouse Fire Chief Mike Bagott. “It’s a pretty detailed review of the big picture; the ability to respond to a fire.”

Palouse’s improvement in rural capacity stems partly from their replacing a 750-gallon pumper truck in 2009 with a 2,000-gallon truck.

After meeting with members of the bureau for four hours Sept. 17, Chief Bagott said then he didn’t expect a significant adjustment. He predicted the ratings could go either way.

The bureau issued the new numbers Sept. 26.

In the system, the lower the rating the better.

The lowest numbers are seen in metropolitan areas, which have more extensive administration and specialized professionals.

For example, in a city such as Spokane, one employee’s job is solely to maintain and test fire hydrants.

Insurance ratings are most affected on the highest end of the ratings scale.

“When you go from an eight to a nine or a nine to a 10, in those places, there’s huge ramifications,” Bagott said.

Overall, Palouse’s fire chief said he is happy with the new ratings.

“From our perspective, our capabilities are really as good as they’ve ever been here,” Bagott said.