Lower fire insurance premiums possibility after Insurance Services Organization increases Evesham Fire Department’s ranking
Evesham’s Fire Department is moving up the ladder, in the eyes of insurance companies that is.
That’s “great news,” as touted by Evesham Fire-Rescue Chief Ted Lowden, who said the department recently rose from a Class 3 to a Class 2 public protection classification from the Insurance Services Offices organization.
Lowden describes the ISO as an organization that examines the entire fire protection system of a municipality every 10 years and then assigns a PPC rating, which most insurers of homes and business then use in calculating fire insurance premiums.
According to Lowden, the highest a department can fall on the PPC scale is a Class 1 rating, and Evesham’s fire department moving from a Class 3 to a Class 2 rating is something Lowden described as taking a lot of work.
“People with a nine would pay much higher for fire insurance than people with say a one, or a two or a three, and as you go through the process, obviously you try to constantly build on your rating so it reduces fire issuance premiums in the community,” Lowden said.
For Class 2-rated municipalities, Lowden said they would, on average, see insurance premium reductions of 1.5 percent for residential properties and 3.5 percent for commercial properties.
With the Class 2 rating, Lowden said the department is one of only 16 in New Jersey, and the only one in Burlington County he is aware of, to have achieved such a ranking.
According to Lowden, a PPC is based on multiple factors, including what a department does before fires start and what happens after they’re put out.
Lowden said the community’s emergency communications systems, the fire departments themselves, the community’s water supply system and a community’s efforts to reduce the risk of fires all factor into a PPC.
The communication system, which Lowden said is handled by the county freeholders, includes dispatching, radio traffic, supplemental information and training operators.
Lowden said he and Evesham Police Department Chief Christopher Chew are constantly in contact with the county to keep the system updated.
“We are in contact with them constantly updating that information so they have the best and most current information to provide to us when we have an emergency,” Lowden said.
Lowden also praised the Evesham Municipal Utilities Authority for its work testing flows and ensuring that in the event of a fire, the department will be able to get the water it needs.
According to Lowden, the department also received credit from the ISO for the township’s efforts in enforcing zoning ordinances and building code compliance, which also factor into how well the department can respond to a potential fire.
In addition to those other factors, Lowden described the examination of just the fire department itself as a weeks-long process where the ISO came in and put a number to everything.
“Numbers of engines, numbers of ladder trucks, amounts of hose and breathing apparatuses and training hours, all that and then how many people you can turn out at a given time as far as staffing goes and how quickly they can get to the incident scene,” Lowden said.
Evesham Township Manager Tom Czerniecki said from a management perspective, the rating increase was a symbolic outcome of a great organizational effort.
“This sort of designation doesn’t change without a lot of work in terms of policies and investment, a lot of behind the scenes really sound management,” Czerniecki said. “I’m proud of Chief Lowden and his team pulling this together.”
