Dillon County Fire Station #3 officials announced today that the fire district improved their rating according to Insurance Services Office (ISO®) – the New Jersey-based organization that collects fire protection information in communities throughout the United States to help establish insurance premiums for residential and commercial properties.
Using its Public Protection Classification (PPC™) scale of 1 (representing exemplary public protection) to 10 (indicating that an area’s fire-protection does not meet ISO’s minimum criteria), ISO awarded Station #3 a Class 4 rating. This rating will benefit all homes within 5 road miles of Station #3. Under the previous rating, only properties within 1000’ of a fire hydrant in this area received a Rating of 6. This new rating will benefit a significant portion of Station #3’s District that had previously experienced very little in savings.
According to public information published by ISO, objective evaluations of fire jurisdictions focus on four major areas:
• Emergency Communications Systems — Focusing on a community’s facilities and support for handling and dispatching alarms for structure fires,
• Fire Department – Measuring a community’s fire suppression capabilities by reviewing such items as engine companies, ladder or service companies, deployment of fire companies, equipment carried on apparatus, pumping capacity, reserve apparatus, company personnel, and training,
• Water Supply – Evaluating a community’s water supply system to determine the adequacy for fire suppression purposes, and
• Community Risk Reduction – Examining reduction efforts such as fire prevention code adoption and enforcement, public fire safety education, and fire investigation.
Chief John R. Smith said, “Over four years ago, Station #3 began working on a plan to achieve an improved ISO rating for our community. This project has been an arduous task for everyone involved. We would like to thank Dillon County Council, Administration, Finance, and Dispatch for their work and efforts on assisting us in seeing this plan through.”
“Much focus has been put into making our department as efficient and effective as possible, giving the taxpayers an acceptable return on their investment into Station #3. In the end, the volunteers of Station #3 are due a huge debt of gratitude, as they have spent countless hours in classroom and hands on training, responding to calls, and working here at the station to improve our equipment and apparatus. ISO’s recognition of our rating improving from a Class 6/9 to a Class 4/10is a public acknowledgement of our efforts paying off for our residents and businesses,” said Smith.
“Our focus now will be on maintaining the items that have achieved this improved rating and working on other areas we have found to provide an even lower rating on the next ISO Survey,” he said
As a result of improving to a Class 4 rating, property owners in the district could see savings in their property insurance premiums when the new rating takes effect on September 1, 2017. (NOTE: Property insurance premium changes will vary by insurance carrier and property. Also, residents within the Town Limits of Lake View are not considered part of this Fire District. The Town of Lake View Fire Department has it’s own respective fire district.)