Insurance premiums likely to jump after increase in East St. Louis fire rating [Belleville News-Democrat, Ill.]

June 21--EAST ST. LOUIS -- The city's insurance rating has doubled, meaning insurance premiums for homeowners and businesses will likely go up as well, city officials said.

The rating has gone from a 5 to 10, which 1 being the best and 10 the worst.

The Insurance Services Organization notified the city of its plans to change the rating a few weeks ago. Since 1971, ISO has been the insurance industry's source of property risk determination.

The ISO determines, for insurance companies, the city's fire rating as an indicator of risk. A 10 means that the area's fire suppression program does not meet the minimum requirements; a 1 means the area has a superior fire protection district.

Mayor Alvin L. Parks, Jr., said he and Fire Chief Jason Blackmon met earlier this week with ISO representatives.

"The long story short is that the ISO rating is possibly going up. It has been published that it is going up. And, some insurance companies have already started acting on the situation," Parks said.

Parks called the meeting with ISO "a very productive meeting."

Then he said, "We're trying to rectify the situation to get the rating back to 5 as quickly as possible."

Parks said he thinks there has been a couple of misunderstandings.

"But, we are well on our way toward regaining our 5 rating," he said.

Parks said a lot of factors could come into play and cause the rating to increase, including equipment, training and manpower. But he stopped short of saying whether any of these were factors in the city's rating going up.

A spokesman with ISO said the city's rating went from a 5 to a 10 because its fire department does not meet the requirement of having 12 hours of fire structure firefighting training in the past 12 months.

A field representative wrote in his report that a review of the department's shift training documents revealed an average of .87 total hours per month, or about 10.44 hours per year.

The field representative visited the fire department two times and a letter was sent to the city on June 1.

Resident Charles Lewis Jr. said his insurance company already has raised his premiums. "Mine has gone up more than 50 percent," he said.

Besides his home, Lewis owns additional properties. He said the rate increase is causing big financial headaches for him.

"I have a couple of other properties. I am not going to be able to afford the insurance. I have been trying to help put people into nice, affordable homes. To pay the insurance premiums, I am going to have to pass the cost along to the people who live in my properties," Lewis said.

Councilman Delbert Marion said something has to be done sooner rather than later to get the city's rating restored.

"We've gone from a 5 to a 10. That's a shame. The city's inability to provide some of the necessary equipment that the fire department needs to keep that quality rating led to it," Marion said.

Marion said he's upset because "the citizens can't afford to pay higher fire insurance premiums."

Chris Hudlin of Hudlin Insurance, 518 Missouri Ave., said the city, which has a professional fire department, should not have such a high rating.

"Some volunteer fire departments have ratings lower than a 10," he said.

"The higher the rating, the more likely it is that property burns too quickly and often it becomes a total loss," he said. Most of the time ratings or 10 are seen in rural areas where response times are longer.

Hudlin said factors such as manpower, age and quality of firefighting equipment, response times, size of the coverage area and availability of water all are factors used to determine an area's ISO rating.

"Due to tax cuts in the tax revenue, there were cuts in the equipment that was being purchased, and staffing was cut. You can only cut so much until you lose ground," Hudlin said.

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