Master Plan Nashua Fire Rescue, NH
General ISO Considerations
The City of Nashua possesses the ability to dramatically improve its ISO PPC® rating and potentially receive
an ISO 1 rating. A review of the fire department's latest ISO survey indicates that significant credit was lost
within the emergency communications, staffing, water supply, deployment, and community risk reduction
sections of the evaluation and subsequently contributed to a rating of 82.04 or a low ISO Class 2 rating.
Resource Concentration
While the majority of responses within Nashua are EMS in nature and are typically handled by one to two
units, some incidents require large numbers of resources and personnel to mitigate the emergency condition
and reduce loss safely and effectively. The ability of Nashua Fire Rescue to effectively deploy multiple units
to an incident scene within a timely manner will often make the difference between minor damage and a
total loss.
NFPA 1710 requires that for moderate risk incidents or greater, such as a fire in a 2,000 square foot residential
dwelling, the balance of needed resources arrive at the scene within an 8-minute travel time. To achieve this,
the concentration of Nashua’s resources were evaluated to determine how the spacing of multiple resources
(the response apparatus within their respective fire stations) are arranged so that an initial Effective
Response Force (ERF) can arrive on scene within the time frames outlined in the on-scene performance
expectations. An effective response force is defined as “the minimum amount of staffing and equipment that
must reach a specific emergency zone location within a maximum prescribed total response time and is
capable of initial fire suppression, EMS, and/or mitigation. The ERF is the result of the critical tasking analysis
conducted as part of a community risk assessment.”
To determine Nashua Fire Rescue’s ability to assemble an effective response force, GIS software was used to
overlay Nashua’s daily minimum staffing at each station within 8-minute travel areas, then add the totals.
The results are shown in Figure 78.
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