Monroe County ISO Ratings
All Monroe County Fire Rescue stations in unincorporated Monroe County have an ISO rating of 3. The ISO scores fire departments on how they are doing against organizational standards to determine property insurance costs. The ratings are done from 1 to 10, with 1 being the highest score.
What are ISO Ratings?
The Insurance Services Office rates fire departments and their communities against their organization’s standards to determine property insurance costs.
This ISO rating is a product of data that is analyzed using a Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS) manual containing the criteria ISO uses in reviewing the fire prevention and fire suppression capabilities of individual communities or fire protection areas. The schedule measures the major elements of a community’s fire protection system and develops a numerical grading called a Public Protection Classification (PPC).
The PPC summary report is prepared with an evaluation that emphasizes Monroe County Fire Rescue’s emergency communications, quality of infrastructure and apparatus inventory, the distribution of fire stations in the area, staffing and training, the community’s water supply for fire suppression and testing of its pumps, the fire prevention program, fire safety education, and fire investigation. The result of the evaluation is a PPC grade that is assigned to the respective community.
Accordingly, an ISO rating reflects a community's investment in fire mitigation and is a proven and reliable predictor of future fire losses. Statistical data on insurance losses bears out the relationship between excellent fire protection – as measured by a PPC – and low fire losses.
Insurance companies use PPC information for marketing, underwriting, and to help establish fair premiums for homeowners and commercial fire insurance premiums. In general, the price of fire insurance in a community with a good PPC grade is substantially lower than in a community with a poor PPC grade, assuming all other factors are equal.
ISO recognizes the dynamic and comprehensive duties of a community's fire service and understands the complex decisions a community must make in planning and delivering emergency services. However, in developing a community’s PPC grade, only features related to reducing property losses from structural fires are evaluated.
The above information is for unincorporated Monroe County. Municipalities should be contacted for their individual ratings.