Some residents could see home or business insurance reductions
By Hayleigh Gowans
Staff Writer
Some taxpayers in the village of Fayetteville may be relieved to hear that the Fayetteville Fire Department recently has lowered its Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating from a 4 to a 3, which could mean insurance cost cuts for some residents.
“The ISO rating is like a fitness report for fire departments,” said Chief Paul Hildreth. “It’s important that our community understands we’re doing the right things and that our main focus is to keep the community safe.”
Fire departments across the country are evaluated by the ISO and given a score from 1 to 10 — with 1 being the best and 10 the worst — based on four categories including the fire department themselves, water supply, community risk reduction and emergency communications.
‘It’s based on a lot of things — response times, man power, total training hours, availability for call, mutual aid, maintenance, apparatus — pretty much all aspects that go into a fire department,” said Hildreth. “Some of the criteria, like water supply and dispatch calls, we can’t really control but we try our best to do well in all of the aspects we can control.”
Hildreth said departments around the Unite States are reevaluated every four to five years, and the Fayetteville FD has remained at a score of 4 since he can remember.
“I want to commend the hard work of Chief Hildreth and the entire fire department for being able to lower their ISO score,” said Mayor Mark Olson.
ISO scores are sometimes used by insurance companies to determine the rate of insurance for homes and businesses — though not all do. The best way to find out if your property insurance will be impacted by a lower ISO rating, contact your individual insurance provider. These possible insurance reductions will go into effect starting Dec. 1, 2016.
For the future, Hildreth said he and the department will work toward continuing to lower the ISO score to prove to the community that they are getting the best possible service for their tax dollars.
“A lot of people look at fire departments as a tax burden, but we do provide the best possible service we can,” said Hildreth. “It’s a relief to know all of our hard work has shown to be worth it…We do so many things to help ensure the quality of life here is the best.”
To learn more about the Fayetteville Fire Department, go to fayettevillefd.org.
