Excerpts from the daily-journal.com:
The Kankakee Fire Department has received the highest rating for a fire department, placing it among a group of just two dozen departments statewide. Other towns with the highest rating are typically much bigger cities or wealthy suburbs, including Chicago, Naperville, Plainfield, Springfield, Champaign, Skokie, Tinley Park, and Batavia.
The Insurance Services Office rates each department on a 1 to 10 scale, with 1 being best. The rating is based on factors such as water supply, emergency communications, creation of plans to fight fires in specific buildings, hose testing and response times, among other things. Historically, Kankakee has been rated at 3 or 4, but five years ago, the number improved to a 2, and now, it’s a 1.
By comparison, Bourbonnais and Manteno are 3s, and Bradley is a 4. It’s harder for smaller fire districts to get a 1 or a 2 because they take in rural areas where it’s harder to respond as quickly to fires. In Manteno, the fire rating improved to 3, from 5, a couple years ago in the rural areas outside village limits but within five miles of a fire station.
