Georgetown Fire Department

Failure to Plan is Planning to Fail

Insurance Service Office (ISO)

Terms

• Insurance Service Office (ISO) serves the insurance marketplace with statistical, actuarial, underwriting, and claims data.

• Public Protection Classification (PPC) classification rating information used to establish fair premiums in communities.

• Outside Protected Area (OPA) the protected area immediately outside and served by the same agency.

History• 1991 Insurance Service Office (ISO) rated Georgetown

Class 4 as result of a Key Rate Conversion• 2001 March, ISO requests Outside Protection Area

(OPA) rating Council denied• 2004 ISO indicated they were only evaluating cities by

request• 2004 January ,Council approves split classification for

OPA results Class 4/9• 2005 November, request for ISO review• 2006 January, city staff complete pre- visit surveys

History continued• 2006 February, ISO field representative visits

Georgetown• 2007 Search for results indicate our survey was pulled

for quality control and then sent to another field office• 2007 December, ISO notifies Georgetown of proposed

changes• 2008 January, Texas Department of Insurance/State Fire

Marshal reviews evaluation• 2008 Spring, State Fire Marshal will notify us of effective

date of the new PPC Class 2/8B rating

Areas in which ISO evaluates our Community

The ISO rates communities in the following areas:

• Alarm System (10%): Factors include the receipt and dispatch of alarms, operators, response times, the organization of the dispatch center, and communications equipment.

• Fire Suppression (50%): Factors include engine and ladder companies in service, apparatus pump capacity, equipment carried on apparatus, number of personnel staffing apparatus, number of reserve apparatus and equipment carried on each, fire station locations and their effect on response times, training of personnel, training facilities and their use.

• Water Supply (40%): Factors include fire flows needed to extinguish a fire in a structure, hydrant spacing driven by fire flows, system capacity for fire flows sustained for a duration of two hours, and inspection and testing of fire hydrants.

• Texas “Exception” Addendum (5%): Factors include fire prevention code enforcement, fire investigation, commercial fire inspections, public fire safety education, construction code enforcement, and compressed air foam system located on fire apparatus.

Scores and PPC RatingsPPC Points1 90.00 or more2 80.00 to 89.993 70.00 to 79.994 60.00 to 69.995 50.00 to 59.996 40.00 to 49.997 30.00 to 39.998 20.00 to 29.999 10.00 to 19.9910 0.00 to 9.99

Our current PPC Rating is 65.46 Class 4/9

June, 2008 PPC Rating 87.14 Class 2/8B or 2.86 Points from a Class 1 PPC Rating

Receiving upgraded ISO Credit• With the current rating all property located in the

city limits receives the same rating (PPC 2)• Property in the Outside Protected Area (OPA)

must reside within five miles of a Georgetown fire station (eligible for PPC 8B)

• Property within the OPA having a working Fire hydrant which is located within 1000 feet of property and capable of flowing 250 gallons per minute (eligible for PPC 2)

• Properties located outside five miles are ineligible for these ratings

GFD Fire Station Districts

What does an improved PPC rating mean to the homeowner?

The approximate cost of insurance premiums for a $150,000 home built in 1990 of a medium construction type would be as follows:

Example Only:– PPC Rating of Georgetown’s class 4

• Premium = $732 annually– PPC Rating of Class 2

• Premium = $664 annually or a reduction of 10.2%

– PPC Rating of Class 9• Premium = $889 annually or an

increase of 21.5%– PPC Rating of Class 10

• Premium = $904 annually or an increase of 23.5%

Other estimates have ranged from 6% to 8% savings on premiums improving from a

Class 4 to a Class 2 rating.

United States ISO Cities

Texas ISO Cities

ISO Class 1 Cities

Next steps• State Fire Marshal’s Office review and issue a

notification with Texas Department of Insurance.• Evaluate and Identify any improvements that

have been made or scheduled to the City of Georgetown since the field review.

• We have up to two years to make improvements to this evaluation and submit for review.

• Identify and submit to Council any improvements that require $$$$ that may help our overall improvement in our rating.