_{Crescent City Fire & Rescue participates in a local Fourth of Parade. | Photo: Jessica Cejnar Andrews}

Kevin Carey said he and his colleagues thought a Class 2 ISO rating was unattainable for Crescent City Fire & Rescue. So when he announced the department’s new designation with the Insurance Services Office Inc. before the City Council on Monday, the fire chief credited a slew of people, most especially the late Steve Wakefield.

Carey delivered the news to Wakefield’s wife Debra after first informing the city manager.

“She was absolutely ecstatic,” Carey said. “She knew that Steve would be super proud of us.”

The Insurance Services Office assigns a public protection classification on a scale from 1 to 10 with Class 1 being the best. The for-profit organization determines this score based on a field survey gauging a department’s emergency communication systems, staffing, training and equipment and its water supply.

Crescent City Fire & Rescue, which is jointly operated through the city and the Crescent Fire Protection District, had long operated under a Class 4 ISO designation and had been pursuing Class 3 status.

It was Capt. Everett Buell, one of the agency’s three paid fire captains, who took over trying to obtain that designation when he was hired in 2023, Carey said.

“We were wanting to see if we could get to that [Class] 3 level,” he said. “And the more we were able to investigate the process of re-evaluation and reassessment, we said let’s go for it and we were able to get it done.”

The Class 2 ISO rating is almost unheard of for volunteer fire departments and agencies that operate with a combination of paid staff and volunteers, Carey said. Out of about 30,000 departments nationwide, only 7 percent have a Class 2 ISO rating, he said.

“When you work out the numbers, the total [number of] departments with ISO ratings, you now have a fire department that’s in the top 10 percent in the whole nation, not just in California,” Carey said.

City Manager Eric Wier said he remembers working with Wakefield in early 2004 to try to maintain the city’s Class 4 designation. After solidifying that designation, Crescent City Fire & Rescue slowly inched toward Class 3 status.

Wakefield served as Crescent City’s fire chief until a stroke forced him to retire in 2018. He saw the Crescent City Volunteer Fire Department merge with the Crescent Fire Protection District to become Crescent City Fire & Rescue in 2015. 

Wakefield died in 2019, before the City Council and the Fire Protection District approved a 10-year masterplan to create a hybrid agency that used both paid fire captains and volunteer firefighters. 

A year later Crescent City voters approved Measure S. Two years later property owners within the fire protection district approved a benefit assessment. Both funding sources made that masterplan a reality with each agency contributing half of the fire captains’ salary.

Achieving that Class 2 ISO rating is the result of Measure S and that benefit assessment, according to Wier.

“To get to a Two, when you told me this, it’s unbelievable,” Wier told Carey on Monday. “It’s definitely a reflection of your leadership as chief building off the foundation built before [you] and also the accomplishments Measure S has allowed us to achieve as well.”

Crescent City’s good ISO rating could have a positive impact on insurance premiums for local residents, Wier said. That’s dependent on other factors, however, he said. Officials aren’t yet sure what the impact could be to residents.

On Monday, Crescent City councilors offered their congratulations to Carey, Buell, Assistant Fire Chief Rich Wier and the volunteer firefighters. 

Crescent City Mayor Blake Inscore said when he was first elected to the City Council, Wakefield offered him his first tour of the city. At the time, Inscore said, though he had no idea what an ISO rating was, Wakefield predicted that he would witness the historic moment when Crescent City had achieved its Class 3 designation.

“Some of this is a legacy built by all of you and the department and volunteers and the  people,” Inscore said. “But I don’t think it’s wrong for us to acknowledge that the vision that Steve Wakefield had for this community and this department laid the foundation for what we’re getting to celebrate today, and I know he would be very proud of this department. I know I am.”