Arnold, CA…The local Ebbetts Pass Fire District has become one of the models for rural districts. The consistently rank higher than many urban districts even for things such as cardiac care. Another way they many be able to help those in their district is on their home insurance rates. The following quote from EPFD Chief Mike Johnson explains it better than we could.. “Home insurance companies can use various tools to determine a rate for calculating coverage fee premium, some companies use a scale based on the ISO Public Protection Class rating. The ISO Public Protection Class rating evaluates the performance of the local fire agencies on many levels and water provisions such as hydrant placement and flows. Evaluations of ISO Public Protection Class ratings usually occur every 10 years or so and are scored on a scale of 10 – 1, 1 being the best. We recently had our evaluation and have been reclassified from Class 4 to Class 2 in our district for all structures are within 1000 feet of a hydrant and 5 miles from a fire station, a criteria most of our district falls under. We believe that all our residents that have insurance companies using the ISO Public Protection Class rating will benefit from sharing this information with their insurance company and may result in a reduced rate.”

Below are additional details….

ISO Insurance Classification

January 20, 2016

Ebbetts Pass Fire District recently completed an Insurance Services Office(ISO) evaluation which has upgraded the District’s Fire Protection Classification to a 2/2X effective February 1, 2016.

This is good news and a great accomplishment. EPFD thanks CCWD, BLS Water, CAL FIRE and all the agencies for their support and assistance to the Ebbetts Pass Fire District. Thanks to EPFD personnel for the great work everyone has done not only to produce the data for the evaluation, but also the hours of training and documentation that went into the process. Thank you to the communities we serve for your continued support of the Ebbetts Pass Fire District.

ISO’s Public Classification Program (PPC) plays an important role in the underwriting process at insurance companies. In fact, most U.S. insurers including the largest ones use PPC information as part of their decision-making when deciding what businesses to write, coverage to offer, or process to charge for personal or commercial property insurance. The new classifications will improve the predictive value for insurers while benefiting both commercial and residential property owners.

If you would like to know more about EPFD’s PPC classification, or about the potential effect of proposed changes to your insurance classification, or to obtain information regarding fire hydrant locations for a selected property, please call Ebbetts Pass Fire District during normal weekday business hours, Monday – Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at (209) 795-1646.

EBBETTS PASS FIRE DISTRICT

Cheryl Howard,
District Administrative Secretary
Ebbetts Pass Fire District