Insurance premiums may rise in CCF&R’s service area

Columbian (Vancouver, WA)

Oct. 14--Parts of Clark County Fire & Rescue's service area may be seeing substantial increases to their insurance premiums following a downgrade of the insurance rating for part of the district. That downgrade should be reversed once a recently approved levy increase allows the district to staff an unused fire station, Chief John Nohr said.

In July 2016, the Washington Surveying and Rating Bureau made its 5-year review of the district, and gave it a slight downgrade in its rating.

The bureau is an independent not-for-profit agency that gives a fire protection rating to agencies and municipalities around Washington, as a service for insurance companies.

Overall, Nohr said, the district went from a 4 to a 5 on the agency's 10-point scale, with a 1 being best (Nohr noted only a few departments in the state have a 1 rating).

But some specific parts of the district, Nohr said, may have seen their rating go to a 9.

"If there are structures that are more than 5 road miles from a recognized station, they may have seen their rating dropped to a 9," Nohr said.

"Recognized stations," Nohr said, include the district's stations in La Center and Dollars Corner. They also include Fire District 3's stations in Battle Ground and at Battle Ground Lake, because they would still serve Clark County Fire & Rescue district residents if needed.

The WSRB notes a single-digit difference doesn't necessarily rate a fire department's quality relative to another. Fire agencies make up less than half of the grading rubric.

Also, insurance companies are not required to follow the bureau's recommendations in setting premiums, according to the WSRB.

Nohr was unsure how many properties were affected by the downgrade, but said they were primarily in the far northeast corner of the district, up state Highway 503 around Rock Creek and Gabriel roads.

Many of those homes are 6 road miles from the station in Battle Ground, but only three miles from the district's unoccupied station at Charter Oak. The district serves about 40,000 people in Clark County and Ridgefield, La Center and Woodland.

Nohr said the levy increase district voters passed in August's election will pay for staff to bring that Charter Oak station back online after sitting there with no staff since 2010.

The money from the levy increase won't be collected until next year, but the district has started the process for hiring new firefighters, he said.

Once that station is staffed and operating again, the review agency told the district it would take another look at the area and alter its rating as warranted.

Reducing response times and getting that station up and running again is the district's top priority, Nohr said.

"I feel for the people that are in this situation during this time," he said. "Our response times to that area are significant, and I feel that all people in the district should have as equitable of service as possible."

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