City Manager Tim Baroody and Fire Chief Mike Jones announced the achievement alongside city leaders at Tuesday night’s City Council Meeting. Fredericksburg is among roughly 2,100 communities nationwide to achieve a Class 2 rating and one of only 22 jurisdictions in Virginia to reach this level. ISO ratings measure a community’s fire protection capabilities and are widely used by insurance companies when evaluating property insurance risk.
ISO, which provides information to insurance agencies about casualty and property risk, performs evaluations on about 38,000 departments nationwide. Evaluations are performed every 10 years unless otherwise requested by an agency. Many insurance companies use ISO ratings as a guideline when setting property insurance premiums, meaning homeowners could see lower insurance rates as a result of the favorable rating. However, some companies use other methods, such as ZIP codes or their own data, to determine premiums.
ISO ranks fire departments in 10 classes by reviewing overall performance, water supply, emergency communication systems and community risk reduction. In 2014, ISO revamped the classifications and included more emphasis on efforts to reduce fires through education. This allows communities to gain points thru risk reduction efforts in the community, such as fire prevention programs, providing free smoke detectors, and other risk reduction initiatives.
Chief Jones noted that several improvements contributed to the higher rating, including the addition of a Fire Training Officer and the implementation of training tracking software. These tools allowed the department to more accurately document training conducted in fire stations and in the field.
With the construction of Fire Station #3 in the next several years and the additional personnel to staff another engine company, this will help the City’s rating points and get FFD even closer to the highest level, Class 1, which only nine jurisdictions in the Commonwealth have achieved.