Fort Mill Fire Department improves ISO rating

For Chief Chipper Wilkerson, an improved fire service rating isn’t just about folks saving money. It isn’t just about his fire department, either.

“A lot of it has to do with the water department and the fire department,” said Wilkerson, who joined the Fort Mill Fire Department two years ago this month. “It’s not just the fire department. It’s been a real team effort.”

The Fort Mill Department recently learned its Insurance Safety Organization rating dropped — which is a good thing — from 4 to 2. The lower an insurance rating, the better the rates typically are when homeowners or business owners have them come up for renewal. An ISO rating is a systematic look at the overall health of a department.

“It goes into training, and a lot of it is record-keeping,” Wilkerson said. “It’s how many calls you have and how long it takes you to get there. There’s a lot of moving parts to ISO.”

The Fort Mill department has eight personnel working 24/7, with three administrative staff. Volunteers are welcome, but the department doesn’t have any now, which is typical of a municipal department like the one Wilkerson leads.

“The training requirements, it’s very stringent,” he said. “You’re talking about hundreds of hours of training before you can go into a burning building, let alone all the other activities we do.”

Apart from department staff, much of the ISO improvement credit goes to town leadership. Last year a fire marshal position was added. Fire service was included when the town discussed and ultimately passed impact fees on new construction. Future fire stations and equipment were added in the capital needs list that came with those fees.

There is ongoing discussion about a fire station on South Dobys Bridge Road, which would be the department’s second.

“That is still in the works,” Wilkerson said. “There’s no final say yet.”

While ISO reviews once came every decade, now the plan is every three years. That second station, or a third proposed in capital needs planning, could have an impact on future assessments. Stations within a five-mile radius of a property is a major factor on ISO, with any property beyond that range scored an automatic 10.

Fort Mill has a handful of properties in the South Dobys Bridge Road area that fall under that 10 rating, the worst an area can receive and likely the highest insurance rates, which will drop to the otherwise town-wide 4 rating once the new station is operational. The new station would help with other ISO criteria, too.

“Those things help,” Wilkerson said. “Station distance will help with response times. Response times are key to the ISO ratings.”

If locals seem to be hearing plenty on ISO ratings lately, there is a reason. There is a process for evaluating the whole state, which put evaluators in the area late last year. Several departments saw their rating improve.

Of the 48,000 municipalities rated nationwide in 2015, only 1,192 earned an ISO rating of 2 or better. When the Tega Cay Fire Department improved its rating last fall from a split 3/8 to a 2, none of the other 18 York County departments had better than a 3.

For fire departments, improved ISO ratings can mean better insurance rates for the community and commendation for firefighters. What property owners should take from the improved ratings, Wilkerson said, is that his department it doing what it should be doing, well.

“It’s a thing that we should be doing,” he said. “It’s preparing and maintaining and doing what it takes.”

This story was originally published May 9, 2016 at 4:11 PM with the headline "Fort Mill Fire Department improves ISO rating."