Tega Cay improves fire safety rating; Could mean savings for property owners

Sept. 14--TEGA CAY -- The Tega Cay Fire Department, based on its new rating, now sits in the top 2 percent of stations in the country.

And that could mean some cash in homeowners' pockets.

The department recently earned an Insurance Services Office rating of 2. An ISO rating determines how well a department serves its area, factoring in call times, distance from stations or hydrants to homes, trucks or firefighter equipment and other criteria.

The score also is used by insurance companies to determine rates for properties within the department service area.

ISO scores run 1 to 10, the lower the better. A department review counts toward 50 percent of the score, with water supply systems at 40 percent and emergency communications systems at 10 percent. Tega Cay scored 84.13 out of a possible 100.5. Good for the top 1 percent in South Carolina and 2 percent nationally.

"More full-time staff," said Chief Scott Szymanski, of the improved rating. "We increased training quite a bit."

Improved record-keeping was a major component, as is the fact Tega Cay homes have fire hydrants throughout the city.

"We're basically a hydrant city," Szymanski said.

Tega Cay began as a volunteer station. Now the city has 11 full-time and one part-time firefighter, along with 21 volunteers. The department budget increased to more than $1 million this year.

The department has a main station and a substation in the police department, and soon will request design funding for a station along Stonecrest Boulevard to serve an ever-growing city.

Prior to the latest evaluation, Tega Cay had a split score of 3 in areas serviced by fire hydrants and 8 in rural areas. Flint Hill and Riverview have 4 ISO ratings. Indian Land and Pleasant Valley each have a 6.

Fort Mill has a 4 ISO rating. Evaluators are coming in December for an update, which the department should expect within the following six months. In the past, ratings evaluations happened every decade. A new system, said Fort Mill interim Chief Chipper Wilkerson, should bring evaluations more frequently.

"This is a new rating schedule, a completely new system," he said. "We're shooting for the best. We're shooting to do our best to get the best rating."

The past system could drop a department to an automatic 10 rating if it served properties outside 5 miles of a station. At an Aug. 20 Fort Mill Town Council workshop, that issue arose with an expanding town footprint into areas like the far reaches of Riverchase.

"At the end of your district," said Dennis Pieper, town manager, "you're over that."

Wilkerson proposed renovation to an existing building or putting a new station in the Dobys Bridge Road area to fully cover the town. A station on Springfield Parkway is another need. Money from new town impact fees should help. Council hasn't approved a new station for construction.

Jeff Hooper, town operations director, served as fire chief before Wilkerson. In his time in Fort Mill and elsewhere, Hooper estimated each ISO point increase could cost a homeowner $250-$280 per year.

Wilkerson said part of why investigators are coming as late as they are, is to allow the town time to figure out what it will do to improve the coverage area. And to get a feel for the new system, including whether it would bump the whole town or just the outlying properties to a 10 rating.

The department is looking beyond geography, too. Fort Mill added a fire marshal and firefighter positions, along with equipment, in recent years.

"The things that we have done so far have done nothing but help," Wilkerson said.

John Marks: 803-831-8166, @JohnFMTimes

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