Mineral Wells Area News

PALO PINTO COUNTY, Texas — Palo Pinto County Emergency Services District #1 will soon begin a process aimed at lowering homeowners’ insurance premiums across the county through Insurance Services Office (ISO) evaluations.

The first evaluation is scheduled to take place in about three weeks at the Graford Volunteer Fire Department, according to Fire Chief Danny Watkins.

“We have our community reduction ISO evaluation coming up,” Watkins said. “That’s where ISO comes out and does the evaluation of each individual station in the county.”

Palo Pinto County currently has an ISO rating that’s maxed out at 10. Watkins said the goal is to reduce the rating to a 7 or 8, which would directly translate to lower homeowners’ insurance premiums for county residents.

“All 10 stations will have this evaluation done. Graford is the first,” Watkins said.

The ISO evaluation examines multiple factors including equipment, training hours and response capabilities.

“It’s based on equipment, training hours, response. And it’s all structural firefighting-driven,” Watkins explained. “There’s a lot of things that go into ISO so it’s your water system, communications, training hours, apparatus equipment, staffing, responses, number of responses.”

Since his appointment as Fire Chief, Watkins has been working to improve collaborative training and communication among the county’s volunteer fire departments. His efforts include implementing new reporting systems and integrating software to create more synchronicity across the county and allow for comprehensive data collection.

The Graford department has been preparing for approximately a year for the evaluation.

“Those guys in Graford have done a good job. They’ve been doing the training, they got the equipment, and now we’re just preparing for our game day,” Watkins said.

Following Graford’s evaluation, the ESD plans to continue with PK East Volunteer Fire Department next. However, completing evaluations for all ten stations will be a multi-year effort.

“This is gonna take us years. It’s a very long process,” Watkins acknowledged.

The improved data collection process better documents calls for service—crucial information needed when applying for state and federal grants to secure additional funding. The standardization of training and procedures across contracted volunteer fire department service providers is creating a more unified emergency response system throughout the county.

“As we grow, we are transitioning towards more structural firefighting. That’s what ISO is geared to,” Watkins said. “It kind of coincides with the growth that we’re seeing and the training that we’re doing in the county.”

Watkins emphasized that the end goal is financial relief for property owners.

“The more points you have, the lower your ISO rating, the more premiums and savings to the homeowners. That’s what we want to get,” he said.