The Burlington Township Fire Department has received notification from Insurance Services Office that an analysis of the structural fire suppression delivery system provided in the community has been completed.
The results of the analysis indicate that ISO’s Public Protection Classification for Burlington Township has improved from the current Class 4 to Class 3. The new classification is effective May 1.
ISO is an independent company that serves insurance companies, communities, fire departments, insurance regulators, and others by providing information about risk. ISO’s expert staff collects information about municipal fire suppression efforts in communities throughout the United States. In each of these communities, ISO analyzes the relevant data and assigns a Public Protection Classification grade — a number from 1 to 10. Class 1 represents an exemplary fire suppression program, and Class 10 indicates that the area’s fire suppression program does not meet ISO’s minimum criteria.
ISO’s Public Protection Classification Program plays an important role in the underwriting process at insurance companies. Most U.S. insurers use PPC information as part of their decision making when deciding what business to write, coverage’s to offer or prices to charge for personal or commercial property insurance.
A community’s PPC grade depends on a few things. Needed fire flows, which are representative building locations used to determine the theoretical amount of water necessary for fire suppression purposes, is one thing. Another is emergency communications, including emergency reporting, telecommunications, and dispatching systems. Fire department, including equipment, staffing, training, geographic distribution of fire companies, operational considerations, and community risk reduction is the third and water supply, including inspection and flow testing of hydrants, alternative water supply operations, and a careful evaluation of the amount of available water compared with the amount needed to suppress fires up to 3,500 gallons per minute is the final factor.
