Six months after a Union Pacific train hauling Bakken crude oil derailed in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, state agencies in Washington and Oregon, residents of the tiny town of Mosier, Ore., and others affected by the fiery crash are in the midst of tabulating a bill to send to the railroad.
- PUB DATE: 12/5/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Columbian

Ferrara—Palmerdale (AL) Fire District rescue-pumper. Igniter cab and chassis; Cummins ISL9 450-hp engine; Hale Qmax 1,500-gpm pump.

Castle Rock residents might have seen lots of flames and activity at 145 B Street SW on Saturday, but they didn’t have anything to worry about. The structure at the address was part of a previously scheduled “training burn” for Cowlitz County Fire District 6 firefighters. The house that was burned was across the street from Castle Rock United Methodist and Castle Rock City Hall.
- PUB DATE: 12/4/2016 2:12:04 AM - SOURCE: Longview Daily News

One woman was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation after a fire broke out in an apartment building Friday morning in Walla Walla. A news release from the City of Walla Walla said fire crews responded to the blaze in the 900 block of E. Alder Street around 6:45 a.m. Friday. Firefighters found apartment number 1, of the four units, on fire when they arrived on scene according to crews.
- PUB DATE: 12/2/2016 11:22:54 AM - SOURCE: KEPR-TV CBS 19

By USDD Staff

One of the key benefits of having a high-functioning USDD Phoenix G2 Fire Station Alerting System at your community’s disposal is that it’s designed to help improve your public protection classification (PPC), and thus can lower your Insurance Services Office (ISO). Let’s take a look at how you can take advantage of lowered ISO insurance rates in your community.

Standards for ISO Insurance Rates
First, as everyone in this industry ought to be aware, the ISO Rating Service was developed in response to insurers’ requests for a way to automate the complex, labor-intensive, and costly process of managing and maintaining policy rates.

In the emergency response field, ISO helps establish appropriate insurance premiums for residential and commercial properties through its classification program for communities’ fire protection services. These ratings are critically important to fire departments and the communities they serve. Fortunately, there’s a quick path to lowering your community’s ISO insurance rates—and thus your premiums—by setting up a trackable means of monitoring the integrity of your public dispatch system.

Monitoring for integrity involves installing automatic systems that detect faults and failures and send visual and audible indications to appropriate personnel. To receive the credit, you must follow the general criteria of NFPA 1221, Standard for the Installation, Maintenance, and Use of Emergency Communications Systems. The standard defines monitoring for integrity as the “automatic monitoring of circuits and other system components for the existence of defects or faults that interfere with receiving or transmitting an alarm.”

As an initial step in this process, ISO has developed a worksheet to determine your community’s credit for integrity monitoring. ISO works both by scheduling periodic community reviews themselves (in other words, they will contact you), or by responding to requests from the communities to initiate a review process (you contact them). Once contacted, an ISO field rep will work with someone from your dispatch center to complete the worksheet. The rep will review systems diagrams and tech data from the system manufacturer and software provider to help you calculate your credits.

Five Things Needed to Monitor your Dispatch System
To receive credit for monitoring the primary dispatch circuit in your community, you need to have an automated system in place that continuously checks all the circuit’s components, including its power supply.

Following are five important monitoring prerequisites:

1. Set up your alert. Ensure that your visual and audible (trouble) signals are set up to alert communications center personnel whenever a component fails.
2. Repeat your audible signal. Set up the audible signal so that it sounds again in the event of an additional fault.
3. Create a dedicated display. Make sure that the visual signal is on a dedicated display not used for routine dispatching.
4. Schedule personnel. Make sure to assign appropriate personnel to be on duty, ready to respond when the trouble alarm sounds.
5. Double up your transmitters. Make certain that you have a functioning spare in place that can take over in the event of a radio circuit failure.

Rapid Response Designed USDD System
At US Digital Designs, we’ve taken great pains to make sure that our Phoenix G2 Fire Station Alerting System has the built-in capability to ensure rapid r