Montgomery County ESD #6- Porter Fire Department has an ISO Rating of 2

The Porter Fire Department Department has received the second highest Public Protection Classification rating from the Insurance Services Office (ISO).  The Insurance Services Office, along with the Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office, has approved the Class 2 rating.  The score is based on a variety of factors, including fire alarm and communications systems, the water supply system including the condition and maintenance of hydrants and amount of available water, training, staffing and distribution of firefighting assets.  

As you may be aware, some areas pose more risk of fires damaging homes than others. Each area has an ISO fire rating, and this rating can impact your homeowner’s insurance premiums. Fires can be incredibly destructive, with not only the flames being damaging. Smoke, ash, and soot can also provide a lot of damage to homes and people. It is important to get a good home insurance plan to protect yourself financially if fire causes damage.

What Is An ISO Fire Rating?

An ISO fire rating for each area is given by the Insurance Services Office. This company puts together ratings that are used by fire departments. The rating is designed to calculate how equipped fire departments are to put out fires in their specific community. The score, which is also called the ISO fire score, is provided to insurance companies as well. Insurance providers use this information by plugging it into a formula that is used to determine homeowners insurance rates.

If a fire department is better equipped to put out a fire in your area, it is less likely that your house will burn down or be completely destroyed. This, in turn, makes your home less risky to insure. In response to this lower risk, home insurance plan providers often give lower rates.

The score, which is also referred to as a Public Protection Classification, is on a scale between one and ten. The scale indicates how protected your area is by the surrounding fire departments. For the ISO rating system, a lower score is ideal. A score of one is the best rating a community can get, and a score of 10 means that the fire departments in the area did not meet the minimum requirements put forth by the ISO.

Community education, including education about fire prevention and fire safety are additional considerations. Areas that are more than 5 miles from a fire station are automatically rated a ten, another important consideration to keep in mind when purchasing a home.

There is a maximum score of around 106%, which would give an area the highest-ranking of one. Scores above 90% get this ranking. Less than 1% of all communities have a one as a score, with a score of five being the most common rating fire departments receive. Urban areas tend to have better scores than rural areas, mostly because urban fire departments are closer together and, in many cases, receive better funding.

How Does My ISO Score Impact Insurance Rates?

It is essential to know what an ISO fire rating is, and also to gauge how it could be affecting your insurance rates. It is well-known that homes that have an ISO score showing a higher risk of fire damage pay higher rates on their insurance plans in general.

The ISO rating of your home is not provided publicly, so a person cannot look up the PPC rating of their dwelling. In many cases, however, the local fire department in your area will have the information and provide it when called. A better score in terms of PPC ratings will translate to lower insurance premiums on average. Some insurance companies choose not to use the ISO score in their calculations. In some cases, these companies use their own systems of data, like historical fire data, instead.

Insurance Service Office (ISO)

ISO was formed in 1971 as an advisory and rating organization for the property/casualty insurance industry to provide statistical and actuarial service to develop insurance programs and to assist insurance companies in meeting state regulatory requirements. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of Verisk Analytics in October 2009.

The Public Protection Classification (PPC) program is a community fire protection scoring system based on a Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS) used by the Insurance Services Office, also known as ISO Mitigation.

ISO field representatives use the FSRS when reviewing a community's fire protection capability. The FSRS scores water distribution, fire department equipment and manpower, fire alarm facilities, and other factors. The FSRS score is then converted into a Public Protection Classification (PPC). In Texas, a perfect score in the categories below is 109.76.

 Most points available in each PPC category:

·         10 points – Emergency communications

·         50 points – Fire department review

·         40 points – Water supply review

·         5.5 points – Community risk reduction

·         4.26 points – Texas exceptions for training and technology

For more information, see the Texas Exceptions to the Fire Suppression Rating Schedule.

The Porter Fire Department submitted documentation and received evaluation in 2023 from Verisk Analytics with their recommendation of becoming an ISO Class 2/10 Fire Department.  In March of 2024 Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office approved the evaluation placing the Porter Fire Department in the top 4% of all fire departments throughout the U.S., scoring 17 points higher than our 2011 rating when we became an ISO Class 3/10.

Any area beyond five road miles from a fire station carries a classification of 10, currently MCESD6 has one area in the south end of the district that fits this description. (White Sands at Sorters Road). Construction of New Fire Station 125 in the Kings Manor subdivision will prevent this area from being five miles from a fire station.