Winter 2019

ISO has released the 2019 National Building Code Assessment Report, which details the status of the nation’s building codes, including individual assessments of each participating state. The report provides a detailed state-level examination of building codes and their enforcement. This edition is an update of ISO’s groundbreaking 2015 report.

Changes in the built environment and the contents of structures are creating new challenges on the front lines of firefighting. That’s the reality that firefighters and emergency services personnel are facing. It’s a story that municipal officials, residents, and insurers need to know and understand to help build safer communities and reduce fire loss.

A career in the fire/emergency service is one of the most rewarding a person can have. The feeling you get when you make a positive impact on someone’s life—perhaps even saving that life—is hard to beat. Those experiences are why many of us become firefighters and why we stay in the service both as professionals and volunteers. Of course, firefighting is also an extremely dangerous career, and those dangers go beyond the obvious perils of responding to fires and other emergencies.

Firefighting is a dangerous occupation, and that goes beyond the risk of fighting fires (see “The Hidden Killers of Firefighters,” also in this issue of CFP News). First responders selflessly sacrifice their time and put themselves at risk to help their communities, so it’s good to know there are organizations that acknowledge their personal sacrifice and are dedicated to improving their safety and health. This article outlines a few of the national organizations.

ISO has received the Distinguished Service Award from the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, Inc. (FLASH), a nonprofit organization that works to strengthen homes and safeguard families from natural and man-made disasters.

Contrary to public perception, the major cause of death for firefighters is not fire—it’s cancer. From January 1, 2002, to March 31, 2017, cancer caused 61 percent of career firefighter line-of-duty deaths, according to the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), with 70 percent in 2016 alone.

Because the risk for loss is so high, insurers use various tools to determine fire loss potential for properties they insure. Two of these tools are from Verisk/ISO: Public Protection Classification (PPC®) and FireLine®. Each program uniquely addresses various aspects of fire prevention and loss. Here are the very important differences between them.