The Denver Fire Department submitted flawed training data to an insurance-rating agency that may set insurance prices for homeowners and businesses, officials with the department said Tuesday.
Denver Fire Chief Nick Nuanes said about 40 percent of the 13,000 hours of training records had inaccuracies.
Nuanes said that the problem stemmed from data-entry errors and that nobody purposefully falsified the data. He said the Fire Department is overhauling the way it keeps the information to prevent such problems from occurring in the future.
“We have created a different system with checks and balances and accountability built in,” Nuanes said.
The story was first reported by 7News.
The Fire Department is reviewing paper records to correct the deficient data submitted to the insurance-rating agency, said Fire Department spokesman Lt. Phil Champagne.
The data the department submitted showed some firefighters receiving training on days they were on vacation. The data also showed firefighters receiving large amounts of training on the same day and same location, a logistical hurdle unlikely to occur.
Nuanes said the problems involved how the department recorded training in the field at fire stations and not training at the department’s academy.
Despite the inaccuracies, Nuanes said the firefighters received the training the department reported to the Insurance Services Office.
He said the problem was due to a computer default mechanism that filled in fields automatically with a specific date if they were were filled in using a date range.
“We’ve corrected that,” said Division Chief Steve Winters. “Now you have to be date-specific.”
Nuanes, who is retiring from the city in September, said he now will receive daily reports on the training data.
The issue surfaced this year when ISO was trying to rate Glendale and Skyline, whose fire service Denver took over.
Nuanes said the department is used to dealing with rating agencies that set insurance rates using a different method.
ISO on Tuesday said it would not use the training records the Denver Fire Department submitted in determining the proper public protection classification, a figure used to set insurance rates for Glendale and Skyline.
Instead, ISO decided to conduct onsite interviews and review available training documentation for the fire stations serving the communities. ISO said it will notify the city officials when the grading is complete.
Nuanes said he doubts the flawed data will lead to increased insurance rates for property owners. He said the rating agencies devote 9 percent of their analysis to training components.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
