JFPD rating drops

March 06--MT. VERNON -- The Insurance Service Office has dropped the rating for Jefferson Fire Protection District for the first time in more than 30 years.

"The rate we used to have was a 6/9," explained JFPD Chief Robert Beal. "It's been that way since at least 1986. This year, it dropped to a 5/5Y."

Every four years the ISO audits fire departments and rates each based on factors such as response time, manpower available, training, equipment and proximity of fire hydrants. Insurance companies use the ratings in the underwriting of homeowners insurance.

Beal said the rural district receives two numbers based on the response times.

"Those with the lower score are located within five miles of the station or have water hydrants within 1,000 feet or are in the villages," Beal said. "The (higher) rate is for those further out."

The 5Y rate is new this year, and is a conversion of the previous rate to eight, Beal said.

The new ISO rating will go into effect on June 1.

"I never thought the rate would go down, so I'm thrilled," Beal said. "I'm so proud of the volunteers. They have put in extra time and effort to make it happen."

Beal said the ISO rating drop comes as the result of an increase in training and volunteers.

"Some things we are not able to do to get points to lower the rating because of the type and size of district we are," Beal said. "But there were a couple of things we are working on and a couple things that got us the lower rating. One is training. Since I became chief, I have mandated training for volunteers to two times per month. The other is that we have people that respond to the scene. We have 13 to 20 people who work on house fires now. The additional training and manpower on scenes in addition to the updated equipment we have dropped the rating."

JFPD has 30 volunteers, four paid officers and covers 220 square miles in Jefferson County.

Beal said ISO also made recommendations. Among the recommendations now in the works is to have pre-fire plans on file for businesses in the district and to mandate an additional four hours of driving training.

In the first two months of this year, JFPD has responded to eight structure fires and been on 206 calls.

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