Residents of Ephrata served by Grant County Fire District 13 will be seeing a potential savings on their fire insurance.  This is according to an improved fire rating the District received from the Washington State Survey and Rating Bureau (WSSRB).  The Fire District will be classified as an 8 instead of an 8 1/2.  This was due to Dist. 13 receiving a "tanker credit".  This rate is to take effect June 1, 2007.  According to the WSSRB, typical savings are between 10-20% depending on the insurance carrier and property insured.

“The District has been working for the past 4 years to accomplish this goal," said District 13 Chief Shane Heston.  Heston also noted,  "This is one of our outstanding and remaining goals to accomplish for the taxpayers of Fire District 13.  The Fire District has undergone some major renovations in the past four years to include building of a Tender/Tanker fleet, adding two pumper trucks with increased pumping capacity and training.   Once the equipment was in place the fire district spent at least 12 months training to become proficient with the drill field exercise.  We trained with the full staff and with minimal staff.  The WSSRB does not announce a date and time when they will be in town.   You call and tell them your are ready for a field exercise and they arrive in town sometime in the next 5-30 days.  Usually they show up during the day when personnel numbers are at the lowest.  Fortunately we practiced all contingencies and successfully passed the flow requirement to receive a tanker credit.  In fact we almost doubled the requirement.  The Fire District has water capacity of 14,000 gallons of water with pumping capacity of 4000 gallons per minute.  In addition a water shuttle can be conducted to maintain flow requirements of at least 500 gpm for an indefinite period.  The firefighters really wanted to accomplish this goal as a way to thank the public for the trust and confidence they have in the District.  Anytime you can provide the taxpayer with a monetary savings it makes the tough job of being a volunteer firefighter worthwhile.  We are very proud of the achievement and I am very proud of the volunteers arising to accomplish this goal  The District’s Vision Statement is very accurate:  Meeting tomorrows challenges…today!".    

And show up unannounced was exactly what the WSSRB did.  It was late on the 1st of May when Chief Heston received a call from the Bureau of Survey and Rating notifying him that tomorrow his volunteers would prove that they could shuttle water to its residence with no hesitation.  That's how it works.  The late notification is to make the drill as real as possible. 

On May 2, 2007 five of the districts volunteers showed the WSSRB that we are ready.  The test required our volunteers to flow 100 gallons per minute through engine 1311 uninterrupted for 30 minutes.  This was completed by a shuttle of water using Tenders 1331, 1332 and 1327.  To add even more of a realistic scenario, once the engine was flowing water the examiner removed three of the volunteers to simulate them as firefighters attacking the fire.  This left two firefighters to complete the test.  The result you ask?  Fire District 13 has now achieved ISO (Insurance Service Organization) level of 8.  This is the lowest rating a fire district can be rated unless the entire district has fire hydrants throughout.