The Telegraph.com has an article about the Alton Fire Department improving their ISO rating:

ALTON — Despite a shorter firefighter roster, the city’s fire chief’s efforts are causing Alton’s insurance rating to improve this fall, which may positively affect the cost of premiums.

“The city of Alton’s Insurance Services Office (ISO) Public Protection Classification (PPC) rating has been improved to a Class 3, effective October 1st,” from a Class 4, Fire Chief Bernie Sebold said. “The ISO rating assists insurance companies in determining property insurance premiums for residential and commercial structures. In order for ISO to determine the PPC rating, they evaluate the fire agency’s dispatching capabilities, water supply system and fire department operations.”

Sebold said people may want to contact their insurance agents regarding the forthcoming ISO upgrade.

“I would encourage Alton residents and business owners to contact their respective insurance carriers and advise them of the ISO rating change that takes effect October 1st so that they may possibly enjoy a lower insurance premium,” he said. “When the rating changed from a Class 3 to a Class 4, we had several residents and local insurance agents notify the Fire Department that residential rates increased approximately $85 to $100 a year, depending on the insurance carrier.”

ISO rates run from Class 1 to 10, with Class 1 being the highest.

“Of the 2,408 fire departments in Illinois, there are only 144 with an ISO Class 3 rating,” he said.

Sebold said there are seven Illinois departments with a Class 1 rating and 56 with a Class 2 rating.

“In the United States, there are 47,242 departments, with only 1,998 departments that are a Class 3,” another 61 with Class 1 ratings, and 592 with a Class 2 rating, he said.

“There were two areas that were significantly changed in the Fire Department,” Sebold said. “One was to include more officer training and multi-fire company drills, and two was to have East Alton respond to all working structure fires in Alton.”

While Alton firefighters have undergone regular, monthly drills for many years, Sebold said in order to address ISO concerns about training, he and Harris changed the focus — or purpose — of the exercises as part of the improvement plan.

“We increased the number of drills and changed the areas we are drilling in,” Sebold said.

Manpower was the other ISO-cited deficiency.

With Alton’s department down to 48 firefighters, Sebold enlisted the East Alton Fire Department to automatically respond to structure fires in Alton, and vice versa, so as to increase number of responders to a call.

Sebold said ISO normally evaluates cities once every 10 years, but it had been 12 years since the last evaluation before the office evaluated Alton five years ago. That evaluation resulted in the downgrade from a Class 3 rating to Class 4.

“During the summer of 2008, ISO visited the city of Alton for its first evaluation since 1996,” the chief said. “(ISO) determined that the PPC rating would go from a 3 to a 4, citing deficiencies in manpower responding to fires and lack of training in specific areas. When I was appointed fire chief in April 2012, one of my primary goals was to decrease the Fire Department’s ISO rating. ISO was contacted and instructed us that we would have to present one full year of new data, and that they would be happy to re-evaluate the Fire Department in May 2013, per our request.”

Thanks Chris

Tags: Alton Fire Department, Alton gets ISO Class 3, Alton’s Insurance Services Office (ISO) Public Protection Classification (PPC) rating has been improved to a Class 3, Fire Chief Bernie Sebold