ISO's 10-no- 5 mile rule

[jboczek]

CR may have mentioned this before and I apologize if he did. Have you guys heard that ISO has changed their ratings to a "10" for any properties that are more than 5 road miles from a fire station. This is effective Apr. 1. I don't know how much difference there will be in fire insurance going from a 9 to a 10 but there may be some mighty unhappy taxpayers. Our Southern Illinois Fire Chief's Association is launching a campaign to find out how this happened and if there is anything we can do to change it back. Even with 2 stations, we've got a lot of places over 5 road miles from a station.

[jaybird210]

Jack, I had heard this also.

It is five ROAD miles? Not map miles, eh?

Yeah, that's gonig to suck for a lot of people up here.

[jboczek]

It's definately 5 ROAD miles. But I guess its up to the individual insurance companies to rate their customers anyway. May pay to shop around a little harder for insurance.

[ChiefReason]

Jack;
Don't apologize. I had to say it a couple of times to myself before it sunk in. Yeah, I mentioned it in the "Trustee" thread. It definitely got the meeting buzzing that I attended.
Let's face it; when our customers get their insurance bill, where do you think that first phone call is going?
Glad I'm not the chief anymore!:p
Mutual aid will be the saving grace in some cases. If you have a mutual aid station within five miles, ISO will factor it.
Remember; and I heard it a hundred times from the ISO guy that day; don't shoot the messenger.
CR

[jaybird210]

Remember; and I heard it a hundred times from the ISO guy that day; don't shoot the messenger.

Chief, please don't tell me you let the ISO guy get away with that bulls#!t!!! He is a representative of the company. When they change something of this magnitude, that will affect us do this degree, he BETTER get beat up; he takes it back and tells his boss, "Hey, they beat me up over this." Then we call and bitch to back it up.

When HFPD started doing ambulance billing, I had several irate residents approach me wanting to know WTF. I was just a blue-shirt at the time, but I didn't back down with a whimpering, "Don't holler at me; it wasn't my idea!" I just whimpered! Seriously, I took the beating, tried to explain the rationale, then told them I would have the chief call them. I was a representative of the company, and I had to take the licks and give them an answer as best I could. I would expect nothing less out of ISO.

[ChiefReason]

Trust me;
By the time we got through with him, he had lost ten pounds from sweating so much and slithered away with a limp!:cool:
I thought you knew me by now, Jay. Or is it President of the Illiana Chapter of the COJ?:p
CR

[jboczek]

When our ISO rep talked about this, he said he had rope burns on his neck from the last time. We offered to just throw him in the lake that was near the building we were in. Our district isn't going to be too bad, just a few houses and farms that will be over the 5 miles. Our neighboring district to the West goes out a good 12 miles to the South and SE & SW of their only station. They are going to catch it. That could give us a chance to get some of their territory since we have a station only 2 miles from their line.
We don't have any other stations close enough to catch our "over 5 mile" places. We're at least 10 miles from eveybody else. That's one reason automatic aid was discussed and dropped. Just won't help us.

[jaybird210]

I thought you knew me by now, Jay. Or is it President of the Illiana Chapter of the COJ?

Oh, no, sir. That's you!!:p

[ADSNWFLD]

With any luck other insurance co will follow State Farm's lead and dump the ISO. Then we won't have to worry how many miles away the station is.

Sounds like just one more reason to have a sprinkler system.

[jaybird210]

So I got to thinking about this the other day (I really wish I could think about something other than fire dept. crap). I was wondering something: does anybody know where ISO came up with either of these figures? They seen awfully damn arbitrary to me.

"Hmmm. Let's see: ten miles seems like a good round number. Yep, ten miles it is. A building's got to be no more than ten miles from a fire station for anything better than a 10. SO LET IT BE WRITTEN. SO LET IT BE DONE."

***ringring. ringring*** Hello, this is ISO. Yes, it is. You did? How much? Gee, that's a lot of money you had to pay out. The house was on the ground before the FD got there? Gee, how far away was the fire station? Six and a half miles? Wow. That's a shame. Yes, I understand. Yes, I know you pay dues to us, and they were rated an "8". But that's the score they got at their last grading. Yes, I know. Yes, I know. Yes, we can "look" at the grade again."

"Ten miles is too far for a fire station to be for good protection. We'll have to change it... to... uh... to........ (*uh, how far should we make it? It was ten..... Think five's okay? Yeah, me too. Okay....) AHEM, you must now be within FIVE miles of a fire station for anything but a 10!! SO LET IT BE WRITTEN; SO LET IT BE DONE!"

bastards.