ISO Grows Fire Hydrant Database by 700K

ISO said it has enhanced its Public Protection Classification (PPC) program with the inclusion of location data for an additional 700,000 U.S. fire hydrants, increasing the number of hydrants in the database to 9 million.

Hydrant data is part of the growth of ISO’s PPC program, which many insurers use to analyze the quality of fire protection in communities around the nation.

ISO captures data related to individual fire hydrants and other static water supply sources across the United States, which the firm says can be more reliable than estimates based on municipal standards for the number of hydrants in a given community.

The hydrant database, which has grown from 8.3 million to more than 9 million in the past 18 months, provides communities with information related to the location and adequacy of water supplies for firefighting.

“Access to water supply is a key component of ISO’s PPC rating and individual building sprinkler system evaluations throughout a community,” said Robert Andrews, vice president and chief field operations officer for ISO. “The rapid growth of our hydrant database is part of our commitment to help our customers more effectively and efficiently evaluate fire risk.”

The PPC program, which is used for property insurance rating, typically classifies communities by assigning a grade from 1 through 10, with 1 being the best. The grade measures key elements of a community’s fire prevention and suppression systems including water pressure, consistency of water flow, and impact on hydrants during times of high water demand in other parts of the system.

In addition to tracking hydrants, ISO tracks alternative water systems, for example, where tankers are used to truck water to fire scenes. Currently, such water systems are recognized by ISO for public protection purposes in more than 4,300 communities throughout the country.

Source: ISO