AND THE ANSWERS ARE. . .
1.
When and where was the world’s first 9-1-1 call made?
In 1958, Congress first investigated a universal emergency number for the United States and finally passed the legal mandate in 1967. At 2:00 p.m. on Friday, February 16, 1968, the mayor’s office in Haleyville, Alabama, placed the first 9-1-1 call to the town police station, just a short distance away. Alabama Speaker of the House Rankin Fite made the call, and Congressman Tom Bevill answered it. But it wasn’t until 1999 that Congress directed the Federal Communications Commission to make 9-1-1 the universal emergency number for all telephone services. Dialing 9-1-1 connects callers to nearby Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) dispatchers trained to route calls to local emergency medical, fire, and law enforcement agencies.
2.
Which of the following six components are NOT required for a community's fire department to receive an ISO Public Protection Classification (PPC™)?
- Organization
- Membership
- Training
- Alarm notification
- Apparatus
- Housing
All six are required. If a community doesn’t meet minimum criteria, ISO assigns a Class 10. Here’s a brief look at the minimum facilities and practices:
Organization
The community must have a fire department organized permanently under applicable state or local laws. The organization must include one person responsible for the operation of the department, usually with the title of “chief.”
The fire department must serve an area with definite boundaries. If a community doesn’t have a fire department operated solely by or for the governing body of that community, the fire department providing such service must do so under legal contract or resolution. When a fire department's service area involves more than one community, each of the communities served should have a contract.
Membership
The department must have sufficient membership to assure the response of at least four members to structure fires. The chief may be one of the responding members.
Training
The fire department must conduct training for active members, at least two hours every two months.
Alarm notification
Alarm facilities and arrangements must be such that there is no delay in the receipt of alarms and the dispatch of firefighters and apparatus.
Apparatus
The department must have at least one piece of apparatus meeting the general criteria of National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 1901, Automotive Fire Apparatus.
Housing
The department must house apparatus to provide protection from the weather.
3.
What activities are the leading causes of house fires and fire fatalities?
Cooking is the leading cause of house fires. Smoking is the leading cause of fire fatalities.
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), cooking fires cause 40 percent of house fires and 36 percent of fire-related injuries. Most cooking fires start when people leave an oven or stove unattended. Many other cooking fires begin when items left too close to cooking equipment start to burn. Most jurisdictions require a fire extinguisher in or near the kitchen. It’s a good idea to mount a fire extinguisher where everyone can find it in the event of a cooking fire.
The NFPA estimates that nearly one in four fire deaths in the United States is the result of a smoking-related fire. Most smoking fires start when a cigarette, cigar, or pipe comes in contact with upholstered furniture, such as couches, chairs, bedding, or mattresses. Many times, smokers will fall asleep with a lit cigarette, which then ignites the furniture around them.
4.
What is the costliest hailstorm in insured losses in U.S. history?
On April 10, 2001, the Tri-State Hailstorm, a supercell storm in Kansas, produced hailstones ranging from 1¾ to 3 inches in diameter. The storm moved along a 363-mile path. Almost every home and business in North St. Louis County sustained hail damage. Insured losses came to about $1.5 billion, making the storm the ninth costliest weather catastrophe in the United States.
5.
What year was the first operational geographic information system (GIS) invented and in what country?
Dr. Roger Tomlinson — known as the “modern father of GIS” — of the Canadian Department of Forestry and Rural Development invented the first operational GIS in 1962 in Ottawa. Called the Canada Geographic Information System (CGIS), it stored, analyzed, and manipulated data collected for the Canada Land Inventory (CLI) — an effort to determine the land capability for rural Canada by mapping information about soils, agriculture, recreation, wildlife, waterfowl, forestry, and land use.
CGIS provided capabilities for overlay, measurement, and digitizing/scanning. It supported a national coordinate system that spanned the country and stored the attribute and locational information in separate files. CGIS lasted into the 1990s and created a large digital land-resource database in Canada in support of federal and provincial resource planning and management. Its strength was countrywide analysis of complex data sets.
Released in 1993, ISO’s Geographic Underwriting System (GUS®) was the first industrywide GIS for the insurance market. It provided up-to-date geographic underwriting and rating information for risks anywhere in the United States. The system’s unique way of integrating U.S. Census Bureau street files and postal carrier routes made GUS geocoding the most accurate available to the property/casualty industry. GUS paved the way for more advanced tools, such as LOCATION® and LOCATION Analyst.
