ISO vs Accreditation

[DennisTheMenace]

What is the real difference between the approvals of The Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI)and the ISO Ratings? With a high ISO rating, class 1-3, is there any reason to add on an Accreditation? Will accreditation help with your ISO rating or insurance rates?

[Dave1983]

ISO has to do with insurance rates. Not sure what advantage there is to accreditation, other then a way to measure yourself against other agencies.

[lvwrench]

ISO gives the area better insurance rateing. Accreditation is a measurement of you against yourself and others to see if you are meeting your goals etc. Accreditation is a whole lot of paperwork and more of an ego trip for those with nothing better to do (in my opinion).

[Bones42]

ISO gives an area an isurance rating. It may be better, it may be worse. And personally, some of the stuff they "give credit" for, is a joke. Please explain how a burst hose jacket will improve FF capability? Please explain how a TIC is comparable equipment to a Cutting Torch? These are just a couple of their silly examples.

[nomex0067]

I came from a department that is accredited, like it was mentioned before its all a big ego trip. Accreditation is all about numbers and worthless junk that no one cares about such as insurance companies. Most of the times the number are all made up so that it all looks good. There are no benefits what so ever, well let me take that back, you get stickers so you can put them on your equipment, woohoo.

[BC79er]

Please explain how a burst hose jacket will improve FF capability?

Well, how about keeping your water supply intact? If you lose a middle section of 5" early on in the attack and don't have one, you're going to have to shut down, hopefully have another engine lay a 2nd line, replace the section, etc, etc. Either way, a lot of time and manpower is lost trying to fix it without a hose jacket (1 man operation), effort not spent fighting the fire, aka, lessening the damage for the insurance claim.

The TIC for a torch and some of the other BS I'm with you on. I miss the sense part about the ladder equivalents. I can see how having a 45' replaces a 40', but not a 35'. Unless you get Too Tall Jones to tie himself to the top run and hang onto the roof edge and people climb over him.

They do need to update a lot of stuff. When was the last time anyone saw a dry cell flashlight?