NFPA Impact
NFPA standards and your FUS gradings
or many of you this may be old
hat, but for others it could serve as
valuable insight into your community's Fire Underwriters Survey (FUS)
Gradings. First off, what FUS classifications have been assigned to your community? If you do not know, find out. These
gradings are assigned to communities
with organized public fire protection,
based on their ability to control and
extinguish fires.
While the grading system has been
around for close to a century, the standards used to measure the adequacy and
reliability of public protection have
evolved to reflect the changing character
of communities and the technological
advances made over the years. Today,
the "Classification Standard for Public
Fire Protection" is the yardstick or model
against which a community's public fire
defences are measured.
It should be noted that the requirements set out in the Classification Standard are not considered in isolation in
that the underlying principles are
affected by adherence to numerous other
accepted national and international standards such as the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Underwriters
Laboratories of Canada (ULC), Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (ULI), American Water Works Association
(AWWA), International Fire Service
Training Association (IFSTA), and the
various provincial and national building
and fire codes.
F
In Canada, the FUS grading system is
administered by the Insurers' Advisory
Sean Tracey
. 'The gradings
developed as a result
of the FUS reviews
are one of several
factors used in the
development offire
insurance rates'
Organization (lAO) who assign two
gradings to communities with organized
fire protection, based on an evaluation of
their physical fire defence systems.
One is the Dwelling Protection Grade
(DPG) which measures the ability of a
community to handle fires in small buildings such as homes. Under this five-class
system, Grade 1 is the best while Grade 5
indicates that the community has very
little if any fire protection. Basic factors
considered when arriving at the DPGs
include water supply, number of fire
fighters and whether they are career or
volunteer, fire apparatus, response distances and method of alarm dispatch.
The second, a more sophisticated
grading system, is the Public Fire Protection Classification (PFPC) or "town
grade" which is expressed on a scale of 1
to 10 where Class 1 represents the
highest level of public fire protection
while Class 10 represents the absence of
any effective public fire protection. The
grading reflects the ability of the community to combat major fires that may be
expected to occur in commercial, industrial, institutional and multi-family residential properties and are developed from
a comprehensive review of all facets of a
community's fire defences including
major features of the water supply
system, fire department administration
and operations, communications system
and fire safety inspection programs.
The gradings developed as a result of
the FUS reviews are one of several factors used in the development of fire
insurance rates. The PFPC is also used to
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determine the amount of risk that insurance companies are willing to assume in
a given community. The grading systems
do not consider past fire loss records to
determine suppression needs but rather
the resources needed to control fires,
based on the structural conditions in the
community being assessed.
Enhancing the fire protection infrastructure by improving training programs, public education activities and
fire prevention initiatives can lead to a
betterment in class; conversely, a deterioration in protection such as closing fire
stations, cutting back on staffing and
equipment can result in a retrogression in
class. "Communities planning to make
significant changes to their public protection facilities should contact lAO in
advance," says lAO's vice-president
Gilles Proulx. "lAO can assist by providing advice that enables communities
to direct their public protection expenditures in those areas most in need of
improvement. "
lAO's Classification Standard for
Public Fire Protection makes reference
to many NFPA Standards when determining fire protection requirements. Is
the equipment and apparatus in compliance? Are there adequate water supplies? To what standards are fire fighters
trained (NFPA Professional Qualification
series)? Is the number of responding
personnel adequate to meet the perceived
tasks (NFPA 1710 and 1720)? NFPA's
standards have become an important part
of the benchmark for assessing your
community's fire protection defences.
Throughout its standards, NFPA
emphasizes the need for community level
risk assessments. From these, emergency
services organizations can develop and
report on the services required to address
this. This is essential in addressing standards such as NFPA 1201, NFPA 1710
and NFPA 1720. This is also a critical
component in the FUS classifications that
will be assigned to your community. For
example, the fire prevention program of
your community now makes up 20 per
cent of this grading. Additional credits
are given for pre-fire planning activities
- the greater number of points, the
better the grading. A properly prepared
Fire Master Plan will greatly benefit any
community.
A thorough review of your community's risks resulting in a Fire Master
Plan ensures that your efforts to resource
your fire department are going in the
right direction. The elected officials
have a complete picture of your community's needs and the level of fire protection should be commensurate with the
degree of risk. There are several groups
that can investigate and prepare a Fire
Master Plan for your community,
including the Insurers' Advisory Organization Inc.
By reviewing your community's FUS
gradings, you can make an accurate
determination of where you should focus
your activities. The development of a
Fire Master Plan that assesses your communi ty' s risks and determines the
resources required to address these risks
goes a long way to improving this classification. This should be an activity that
every community undertakes as it
directly impacts on all property owners.
For further information on Fire
Underwriters Survey and the Insurers'
Advisory Organization Inc. please visit
their web site at http://www.iao.ca or call
toll-free at 1-800-268-8080....
Sean Tracey is the NFPA's Canadian
Regional Manager and can be reached
at 613-830-9102, e-mail
stracey@ nfpa. 0 rg.
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