MIAMI.- Esteban Bovo, mayor of Hialeah, announced that the city’s Fire Department obtained the “Class 1” rating, one of the highest scores obtained by only 1% of the fire departments in the country.
“It has been 40 years receiving ‘Class 1’ recognition in the city of Hialeah. This classification is a testimony to the work of the men and women who make up the Fire Department, the services they provide, the equipment they have and the protocol implemented. But it also speaks a lot about 911, about the magnificent work of the Emergency Center operators,” said the mayor at a press conference this Tuesday, March 26, at Fire Station No. 1 in Hialeah.
The mayor described the high score achieved by the Department and the 911 Emergency Center as historic and stated “that this result should serve to close the gossip that existed about the efficiency of the 911 Center. A “Class 1” accreditation cannot be achieved “if 911 operators don’t do their job well.”
The Insurance Services Office (ISO) uses the Public Protection Rating to measure a local fire department’s ability to respond to fires. For this, a rating of 10 points is used. “Class 1” is the highest and “Class 10” indicates that it does not meet all the necessary conditions to guarantee fire protection for the community.
According to Bovo, “Class 1” accreditation impacts the insurance premiums of city residents and business owners, “who may receive discounts on their insurance contracts due to this accreditation.”
Effectively, the insurance industry determines insurance premium rates for properties within a community, taking into account the ISO classification.
This is a challenge for all departments that worked together with the administration. We must not only ensure that we achieve this “Class 1” classification, but we must work to sustain it over time, said the mayor.
Last July, Councilman Bryan Calvo created a huge controversy by saying that the Hialeah 911 Center was neglected, understaffed and that not all calls from residents were being answered, so he requested an investigation. In response, Mayor Bovo stated that the councilman’s alarm was unjustified.
“What was being pointed out as a problem was something that affected the entire industry, it was not just in the city of Hialeah. Although our idea was always to improve the system. We needed better training, more employees, better salaries and some technological improvements that help us answer the phone faster; all that was done. What worried me the most was that criticism that the calls were not being answered, because that would be chaotic and it was not really happening,” Bovo said.
To achieve the highest possible certification, the level of preparation of the firefighters, the operation of the hydrants and the performance of the city’s 911 Emergency Center were evaluated. Only 1% of the country’s departments obtain this level of certification.
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