Fire Department’ Insurance Ranking Lowered

Area home and business owners can soon expect to see a decrease in insurance premiums at the hand of local fire departments.

Clinton and Camanche fire departments recently received word that because of a multitude of factors in the Public Protection Classification, the Insurance Services Office (ISO) rankings had been lowered.

In order to accomplish that, both departments had to work to make improvements in nearly every aspect of the Fire Suppression Rating Schedule, a basis for ISO scoring.

And when the announcement came that the work had paid off, Clinton Fire Chief Mike Brown and Camanche Fire Chief Dave Schutte were ecstatic about the news.

“It was one of those goals that we were shooting for but didn’t really expect to get there,” Brown said. “For an outside agency to come in, we don’t know them, and to look at our department objectively, and give us this rating, is pretty cool.”

In the scoring total with the ISO, the Clinton Fire Department received a credit of 37.84 out of 50 points. However, it isn’t just the department that is scored in the ISO’s model. It also includes the Clinton County Communication Center and the water supply from Iowa American Water.

The communications center also played a role in Camanche’s lowered ISO rating, but only 10 percent of the final score is based on communications, with the same going for Clinton.

Because of the partnership between the departments, communications and water supplies, Schutte said a mutual team effort was necessary to accomplish this long-term goal.

“It’s a collaborative effort between the three,” Schutte said. “Basically you are rated as an individual department, but with the three of us working together to improve, that’s the best result for the community.”