In 2009 the Cedar Park Fire Department was notified that the department successfully lowered (improved) the rating from an ISO Class 3 to the current Class 1 rating inside the city limits of Cedar Park. Residents and commercial property owners within the city limits of Cedar Park may be eligible for a reduction in their insurance premiums as a result of the Cedar Park Fire Department's ISO Class 1 rating.
Out of 48,574 fire protection areas rated in the country, just 132 received the Class 1 rating. This means Cedar Park Fire Department ranks in the top two-tenths of one percent of all fire departments in the United States.
Whether we like it or not, paying for insurance if a fact of life. Homeowner and business insurance companies use many factors when determining the cost of your premiums. To help establish appropriate fire insurance premiums for residential and commercial properties, insurance companies need reliable, up-to-date information about a community's fire protection services. ISO provides that information through the Public Protection Classification (PPC) program.
ISO stands for Insurance Service Organization. This is a group of trained, professional evaluators that assess almost every fire department in the U.S. In each of those communities, ISO analyzes the relevant data using the Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS). Using the FSRS, ISO objectively reviews the fire suppression capabilities of a community and assigns a Public Protection Classification - a number 1 to 10. Class 1 generally represents superior property fire protection, and Class 10 indicates that the area's fire suppression program doesn't meet ISO's minimum criteria.
The FSRS allocates credit by evaluating the following three major features:
- Alarm System (10%): Factors include the receipt and dispatch of alarms, operators, response times, the organization of the dispatch center, and communications equipment.
- Fire Suppression (50%): Factors include engine and ladder trucks in service, apparatus pump capacity, equipment carried on fire apparatus, number of personnel staffing fire apparatus, number of reserve fire apparatus and equipment carried on each, fire station locations and their effect on response times, training of personnel, training facilities and their use.
- Water Supply (40%): Factors include fire flow needed to extinguish a fire in a structure, hydrant spacing driven by fire flows, system capacity for fire flows sustained for a duration of two hours, and inspection and testing of fire hydrants.
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