Fire rating appeal keeps Albany homeowners insurance rates stable
Officials in Albany, Oregon, recently announced that the city's fire department won its appeal with the Insurance Services Office, maintaining its positive rating and preventing a potential increase in homeowners insurance rates, the Democrat-Herald reports.
According to the paper, the ISO, which measures potential risks for home insurance companies, had planned to drop the fire department's rating from a 3 to a 4. Class 1 generally represents the best fire protection rating, while Class 10 is the worst.
The department earned improved scores for how it handled fire alarms and its training protocols, but lost points for having just four fire stations instead of five.
However, after the appeal, the paper reports the department's fire prevention score actually increased from 67.9 to 70.1. If the ISO's rating drop had occurred, officials told the paper local residents would have seen their premiums increase 1 to 5 percent. They added that having additional data could also be useful when measuring the benefits of potential upgrades for the fire department.
According to the ISO, a community's overall rating hinges on a number of factors, such as communication and dispatching systems, the location and staffing for fire departments and even the condition of local fire hydrants.
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