If the city of Brookings hires a few full-time firefighters, homeowners may see a drop in their fire insurance.

Brookings City Council is considering the possibility of hiring firefighters to raise Brookings fire protection rating. The action could reduce the price of fire insurance policies for homes and businesses in the Brookings area.

Any expansion of the fire department would only happen if a review shows that the change would be cost-effective.
“The city will weigh the value of additional paid firefighters versus the benefit of a (higher fire protection) rating,” Mayor Larry Anderson said.

Currently the department has two full time firefighters – Fire Chief Bill Sharp and Assistant Chief Jim Watson. An additional 30-35 volunteer firefighters fill out the department.

The volunteer firefighters are not counted in the city’s score in the same way full-time firefighters are, no matter how well trained and active they are.

“Volunteer firefighters are credited at a rate of 3 (volunteers)  to 1 (professional),”  Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO) Western Region Manager John Coleman said at the March City Council workshop.

ISO is a risk-assessment company that reviews city and rural services to determine the level of risk in regions across the United States.

Many insurance companies use ISO ratings as part of the formula that determines fire insurance rates for home and business owners, Coleman said.

The scale for fire ratings runs from 1-10, with a rating of 1 being extremely well protected, and a rating of 10 being unprotected rural areas.

“Even big cities rarely rate a 1” Coleman said.

Ratings are based on areas within five miles of an ISO recognized fire station. To be ISO recognized, a fire department must be able to muster a minimum of four firefighters for each call and pass an ISO equipment inspection.

Currently Brookings is rated 4/9. The split rating means parts of the city where fire hydrants are common and are close to the fire department are rated 4. More distant properties, mostly in rural settings, are rated a 9.

The city would attempt to upgrade the city’s ISO rating to a 3/8.

Upgrading the more distant, rural areas of the district to an 8 can mean significant insurance savings for residents in those areas, Sharp said.

How significant those savings are is what the city wants to know, especially in comparison to the the cost of hiring firefighters.

Hiring four firefighters – a single engine company as defined by the ISO – would cost the city about $230,000 per year, including benefits, City Finance Officer Janelle Howard said Friday.

Firefighters can be hired from the existing pool of volunteers who are already qualified firefighters, Howard said.

Considering the city’s range for a fire chief’s salary, $54,732 to $73,416, a new Brookings firefighter would receive a starting salary of about $36,000 per year, roughly comparable to that for a rookie police officer, she said.

Not all insurance companies use ISO ratings as part of their policy pricing formula.

A few of the largest insurance companies, such as State Farm Insurance, do not use ISO ratings for their insurance policies, instead relying on their own research, State Farm Agent David Allen said Friday.

If the city adds firefighters or makes other improvements to the fire protection in an area to improve the ISO rating would also affect the way State Farm and other insurance companies would view the area’s fire protection, Allen said.

Depending on the company, insurance prices could fall as soon as the insurance company receives the new information, or may wait until individual contracts

ISO ratings are reviewed every 10 – 15 years, or if the situation in a city changes sufficiently to call for an earlier review, Coleman said. Brookings received its last rating in 2005.

Anderson  requested a report from ISO detailing how many firefighters Brookings would require to improve the city’s rating, and how much that would save on residents’ insurance policies.

The ISO report would be free to the city, Coleman said. ISO’s bills are paid by insurance companies that subscribe to the company’s rating services.

If the savings for insurance are worth the cost, then the city would consider adding more full-time firefighters, he said.

Some of the things that could help bring up the city’s rating to a 3/8 are not worth the cost, Sharp said.

They include the addition of equipment that the Brookings Fire Department has no use for, would cost the city money that could better be used elsewhere, and would take up space that is needed for equipment the department does use, he said.

“Everything we need is  already there,” Sharp said.

One of the items that Sharp deems unnecessary but would score points for the city’s ISO rating is an emergency  hose repair kit.

“If we had a hose burst we wouldn’t take the time to repair it in the field,” Sharp said. “We have plenty of hoses. We would just switch it out.”

Some of the elements that are considered are the number of engine companies available to a city, Coleman said. For a city the size of Brookings, ISO prefers to see three engines, including two active and one in reserve.

Brookings currently has those three engines available, Sharp said.

Two of the city engines are kept at the fire station at Fifth Street and Elk Drive. The city’s reserve engine is stored at the Upper Chetco Fire District firehouse, where it is on loan to Upper Chetco Fire Department and available to the city as needed.

In the last year Anderson has questioned the city’s contract with Upper Chetco, and intends to examine the contract to determine if it is costing the city money to loan the engine to the neighboring district.

Under the current contract, the city receives most of the Upper Chetco Rural Fire District’s taxes income in exchange for the use of the engine.

Anderson has expressed concern that the cost of maintaining the engine costs more than the city receives from the district.

However, the city also benefits from the relationship, Sharp said.

“Loaning the third engine to Upper Chetco provides a protected, indoor location for the city’s reserve engine,” he said.

The city does not have a similar location available to protect the reserve engine from the elements.

If the city were to give up the reserve engine and ask ISO to consider the city’s mutual-aid agreement with Harbor Rural Fire District, Harbor’s engines could only be counted as partial credits, Coleman told the council.