Some Perry homeowners could experience a decrease in their fire insurance premiums due to a recent change of the Public Protection Classification (PPC) rating going into effect Wednesday because of improvements from the Perry Fire and Emergency Services Department, according to Chief Lee Parker.
The Insurance Services Office (ISO) sends someone out every five years or so to examine a fire department’s ability to operate efficiently while providing effective fire protection services, Parker said. Departments receive a score of 1-10, with a score of 1 being the “best” score a department can receive, he added.
According to an official score announcement written by Chief Parker, the ISO survey was completed back in February, with a July news release on the City of Perry website announcing the score improvement from Class 4 to Class 3.
“What ISO looks at is everything from emergency communication — which is our 911 center — we’re a big portion of it,” Parker said. “They also look at the city water supply, our fire hydrants, the water lines that we have going out to all the different communities — and of course, the fire hydrants that are there.
“They also look at how well we do as far as community risk reduction, which is our fire safety education. And we scored well in community risk reduction; we scored well with the fire department, water supply — all improved. Basically, we improved in all those areas, and we were able to pick up enough points to go to the next classification, which is a Class 3.”
He said Perry’s department has stayed steady with maintaining the city water supply and made effective use of their equipment and current personnel.
“The city water supply has grown,” Parker said. “We’ve put out new fire hydrants and new water lines to parts of the city where the growth is; that’s what helped a good bit.”
The department’s new ladder truck and pumper truck didn’t necessarily improve the score since they’ve had a ladder truck before, and they haven’t made any significant changes in personnel recently, he said. The score change had more to do with how the department personnel have communicated with and educated the community, Parker added.
“We picked up a whole 10 points over the whole thing,” Parker said. “That’s what put us into a Class 3, and really, we’re only a point-and-a-half from Class 2.
“With a little bit of improvement, the next time they come — they come about every five years — we should be able to get to a Class 2 the next time.”
Parker added there was no way for him to guarantee the department’s future jump to Class 2, but they most certainly wouldn’t fall backward in score.
He said normally, somebody from ISO would come out and meet with the department in person. But because of COVID, the process was completed online involving a phone interview with an ISO agent and electronic transmission of all required information before review and scoring.
“There’s a little over 40,000 cities that are evaluated by ISO, and out of all those cities, there’s only 3,643 in the country that are a Class 3,” Parker said. “In Georgia alone, there are only 128 Class 3 departments — and there’s probably 600 fire departments in Georgia.”
The community impact of this improved ISO score could involve lower premiums on the homeowner’s insurance of Perry residents, the chief said.
“Now, again, that’s not a guarantee, because there’s so many different things that go into a homeowner’s premium,” he added. “When the insurance company figures that out, if everything stayed the same — and the fact that we’ve lowered our rating to a Class 3 — we would hope they [homeowners] would see some savings on their premium with that.”
Chief Parker said he wanted the community and his department to continue developing their relationship through fire safety education, risk reduction and city engagement.
“We just want to be more engaged with the citizens of Perry,” Parker said. “We’re trying to do a lot more with our community risk reduction and put the fire safety message out there.”
According to the score announcement written by Chief Parker, the current Perry Fire and Emergency Services Department has 13 on-duty members working 24 hours per day, responding to around 2,400 emergencies per year.
If someone wanted more information regarding the PPC rating program, contact the ISO mitigation specialists at 1-800-444-4554 or contact the Perry Fire and Emergency Services Department by calling 478-988-2850.
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