New fire department evaluation could lower insurance premiums

Chelsea residents may see a difference in their insurance premiums starting Dec. 1.

City of Chelsea Fire & Rescue was reevaluated according to the Insurance Services Organization (ISO) grading system, improving from a 5 to a 3/3x rating. The last evaluation was done in the 1980s, and the new grade reflects several changes in the community.

“Everybody’s worked hard to do the best they can with what they had, and the ISO rating reflected that even then, 30 years ago,” said Chelsea Fire Chief Wayne Shirley. “So now,

we’re an incorporated, fully functioning city, and our fire department has done a good job and brought its rating into a grade 3.”

At the time of its last evaluation, the department was a volunteer service, utilized tankers and dunk tanks for water supply and had fewer than 20 fire hydrants. Shirley said the department’s

5 rating was good for a volunteer service, but several changes made a reevaluation necessary.

“It kind of migrated to, ‘Well, Chelsea’s telling us they’ve changed a lot, so we need to get them reevaluated,” Shirley said.

While it took around 30 years for this reevaluation, Shirley said ISO’s new system means the city should be evaluated every five years.

The new grade goes into effect on Dec. 1, and Shirley said residents should contact their insurance provider to see if it will affect their policy.

ISO grades are based on three main categories—emergency communication, the fire department and water supply. A 3 reflects a high-quality fire station, Shirley said, and the 3x denotes there are some properties more than 1,000 feet from a fire hydrant.

“They’re saying that while your department is a very good department, in the case that they

have one obstacle to deal with at your house because you’re outside of 1,000 feet from a hydrant, so that’s the difference between a 3 and 3x,” Shirley said.

While the grade places Chelsea Fire & Rescue in the top 8 percent of the 48,855 departments evaluated by ISO, Shirley said there is still room for improvement. Those improvements, however, will take some time and somewhat depend on Chelsea’s growth.

Some grades are also out of the department’s hands, Shirley said. For example, Chelsea Fire & Rescue uses the Shelby County 911 Center for communication. While they received a good grade in that category, Shirley said it is not up to the department to make changes that might further improve that grade. The department also cannot control the factors of a water systems grade, other than hydrant testing.

The fire department evaluation is where Shirley said he has the most control. Within that category, the department received high grades on training, testing and internal policies.

“The area where we have control is in this fire department section,” Shirley said. “All of the areas that I as fire chief can do something about, such as having policies in place, training our people, making sure we’re testing … we’ve done everything we can do to give ourselves the best grade possible.”

The department received its lowest score on ladder service, deploy analysis and company personnel. Ladder service is based on when the ladder truck is staffed and goes on calls. While Chelsea Fire & Rescue has a ladder truck, it is only sent to commercial fires. Shirley said in time, they hope to be able to buy and staff a ladder company.

“That takes time and growth and continued community support to make a difference there,” Shirley said.

The deploy analysis has an ideal score of 10, which departments receive for having stations within 2.5 miles of populated addresses. With two staffed stations, however, Chelsea Fire & Rescue does not qualify for that. Shirley said a higher score would require building and staffing more fire departments, which cannot be done on a whim.

The addition of new fire stations and more staff will come as Chelsea grows, officer and media specialist Paul Williams said, and he hopes for continued support from the community and local government.

“There’s definitely incentive as a resident to know that your fire department is well-maintained, well-structures and always moving, progressing forward to always strive for that higher ISO rating,” Williams said.