ISO Rating

What Is An ISO Fire Rating?

ISO collects information on municipal fire-protection efforts in communities throughout the United States. In each of those communities, ISO analyzes the relevant data using our Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS).

The ISO then assigns a Public Protection Classification from 1 to 10. Class 1 represents exemplary public protection, and Class 10 indicates that the area’s fire-suppression program doesn’t meet ISO’s minimum criteria.

And by securing lower fire insurance premiums for communities with better public protection, the PPC program provides incentives and rewards for communities that choose to improve their firefighting services.

ISO has extensive information on more than 44,000 fire-response jurisdictions.

How Is An ISO Fire Rating Determined?

Once the score is calculated, the ISO assigns a Public Protection Classification (PPC) rating to the community. Below are the categories that account for ISO scores:

50 percent

Fire department: The overall health of a fire department is assessed in this category, based on the number of departments in the area. In addition, the ISO looks at firefighter training, number of firefighters and volunteers, and maintenance and testing of pumps and other crucial equipment.
40 percent

Water supply: ISO evaluates each community based on its water supply. During the rating process, the organization looks at certain factors, like the number of fire hydrants in the area, the amount of water available after daily consumption and whether the community has enough water and water access for fire departments to use for fire suppression.
10 percentEmergency communications systems: This evaluates how well a fire department receives and responds to emergency calls. Some of the specific factors that contribute to PPC ratings include the number of agents in the emergency call center and the number of computer-aided dispatch (CAD) facilities in the community.
5.5 percentCommunity risk reduction: Any extra practices a community develops toward fire prevention and response are recognized in this category. It includes fire safety education, fire prevention techniques and fire investigation (ISO considers these points to be bonus points).


The highest PPC score an area can receive from ISO is a 1 and the lowest is a 10. While the biggest category is the fire department, which accounts for 50 percent of the score, the hardest to improve is an area’s water supply. A lack of fire hydrants and access to an adequate amount of water cannot be easily remedied and would require extensive infrastructure development to fix.

What is the ISO Rating for HIbbing Fire Department?

The Hibbing Fire Department has an ISO rating of 4. We are confident that we will reach an ISO of 3 for our next ISO calculation. 

An ISO rating of 3 is a huge accomplishment and only a handful of other departments have been able to achieve this.