Albemarle County Fire & Rescue recently underwent an Insurance Service Office (ISO) rating resulting in a significant improvement that went into effect on April 1.
ISO is an independent company that serves insurance companies, communities, fire departments, insurance regulators, and others by providing information about risk. ISO collects and evaluates information from communities in the United States on their structure fire suppression capabilities. ISO’s expert staff collects information about municipal fire suppression efforts in communities throughout the United States. In each of those communities, ISO analyzes the relevant data and assigns a Public Protection Classification (PPC) – a number from 1 to 10. Class 1 represents an exemplary fire suppression program, and Class 10 indicates that area’s fire suppression program does not meet ISO’s minimum criteria. ISO conducts these surveys whenever it appears that there is a possibility of classification change.
ISO’s Public Protection Classification Program (PPC) is important to communities and fire departments as well. Communities whose PPC improves may get lower insurance prices. PPC also provides fire departments with a valuable benchmark. PPC plays an important role in the underwriting process at insurance companies. Most U.S. insurers use PPC information as part of their decision-making when deciding what business to write, coverage’s to offer, or prices to charge for personal or commercial property insurance. It is anticipated that Albemarle County’s improved rating will positively affect the insurance rate of many home owners in our community.
The improvement in Albemarle County’s rating is contributed to:
- Investments in fire rescue over the last 10 years, including several stations and apparatus,
- A consolidated (County) rating – a result of the fire rescue ordinance that was adopted in 4/2011 (previously departments were rated individually), and
- ISO adopted a new rating schedule which included credit for fire prevention activities.
For more information about ISO’s Public Protection Classification program and the criteria used in evaluating how communities are protecting residents from fire and other natural hazards, visit www.isomitigation.com.
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