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LINGOHOCKEN IMPROVES INSURANCE RATING FOR
WRIGHTSTOWN TOWNSHIP
In March 2004, Lingohocken members began a project to prove to the Insurance Services Organization (ISO) that we are capable of using water tankers to flow an equivalent quantity of water to fire hydrants for Wrightstown Twp. The ISO sets ratings for communities around the country upon which many insurance companies rely to set their rates. Wrightstown does not have any public water, nor any pressurized hydrants. Due to the foresight of the Fire Company, and Township management, there are a number of “static” water sources around the township that have had dry hydrants – connections that fire pumpers must draft water from – installed. These are generally ponds and basins, although in some cases, there are underground tanks. It takes a little extra work to get the water from these, but we’ve practiced hard at it and have proven we can make them work in moments.
ISO rates communities from 1-10, with only a few dozen “1’s,” and a rating of 10 meaning there is no fire department within 5 miles of your home. There are only 19 fire departments in all of Pennsylvania rated “3” or better, and the largest # of departments in the state are “9,” with “6” and “5” ratings being the next most common. Wrightstown has always been a 9, and we wanted to improve upon this. However, no fire department in the Philadelphia/New Jersey metropolitan area had ever gotten better than a “9” with no hydrants – and water supply is 40% of the rating. The fire department is 50% of the rating, and receipt/transmission of fire alarms (the 9-1-1 and county emergency dispatch system) is the remaining 10%. Without being able to prove a sustainable water supply, ISO will not come out and rate the remaining 60% of a community. ISO considers that any location within 1000 feet of a fire hydrant supplied from public water has a sustainable water supply, unless the fire department can prove it can do better than that. Most area communities have a split rating of 4/9, 5/9, or 6/9, with the first number being for buildings within 1000 feet of a hydrant, and the second number being the rating for buildings beyond that 1000 foot distance. The difference in insurance rates can be very significant without hydrants.
Lingohocken (and all of our neighboring companies) has prided itself for years of being capable of flowing up to 1000 gallons per minute of water in most of our coverage area using water tanker trucks that shuttle to a nearby water source and bring the water to the fire. We work together with all of the companies in the area to provide this service at incidents of consequence, and have recently been called as far as Falls Township in Bucks, and Abington Township in Montgomery County to shuttle water to building fires that were out of easy reach from public fire hydrants. We had to prove we could do it for ISO to upgrade our rating, and provide insurance premium savings to our residents. Our initial focus on this project was for Wrightstown Twp., since we cover 100% of Wrightstown and they have installed a number of dry hydrants that meet the ISO criteria for alternative water sources. Additionally, we couldn’t negatively affect Wrightstown’s current rating.
We had to gather 50-year drought flow data on the Mill and Neshaminy Creeks from the US Geological Survey. We had Dumack Engineering in Penns Park help us by writing professional evaluations of the 50-year drought levels of several of our water supply ponds in the Township. We had to change our phone listing in the phone book as ISO isn’t satisfied with just the front page saying “call 9-1-1.” Every little listing in the blue and white pages must match what they want (its not easy these days finding the right person in the phone company to help with this). We conducted numerous tanker shuttle drills with help from our neighboring companies. We did a 2600 foot hose lay of large diameter supply hose to prove we could flow almost 1000 gallons per minute within 12 minutes of arrival at a fire that was ½ mile from the nearest water source. We dumped and filled water tankers from a dozen area fire companies to time how fast this could be achieved – always striving for the 1000 GPM rate. We ensured all of our pumps and hoselines were tested every year. We updated preplans, run cards, maps and training records and put it all together in a 3” binder of data that was submitted to ISO in the Fall of 2005. Although they told us it was “…one of the best alternative water supply submissions we have every seen,” we continued to work with them for almost a year providing additional information/clarifications that they requested. Finally, we got the word that they were satisfied with our data submission, and they would come out and evaluate us! This occurred in March, 2007 when a representative first came out and spent several hours poring through our call records, training and testing records, and reviewing our equipment to check it against their standards. When Buckingham Twp. was rated in 2001, our engines only received 65% credit for missing equipment and testing information. This time, we were ready – achieving 95% credit for our engines, only missing a single piece of equipment (don’t know how we missed that…). They then spent several hours with us, and 4 water tankers from surrounding communities, to time our water dumping and filling, placing a large handline in service, and connecting to a dry hydrant. We then had to wait several months while they did their calculations and checked the numbers to come up with a final rating.
After more than 3 years of work, effective October 1, 2007, Wrightstown Township ISO rating has been reduced from a “9” to a “7” – the first Bucks County community to receive a rating lower than a “9” with public hydrants being more than 1000 feet away. We are still in negotiations with ISO to lower this further as they have not taken into consideration our automatic aid arrangements with our neighbors such as Newtown and Northampton. Their apparatus routinely responds with us to house and building fire assignments. We forwarded additional documentation to ISO on this in October, and are awaiting further clarification from ISO on the impact on Wrightstown’s rating. Presently, we are working with Upper Makefield Fire Company to see if we can improve Upper Makefield Township’s rating (we cover 12% of Upper Makefield Twp.) which is upcoming. Efforts to improve Buckingham Township’s rating would follow that.
Did you know that every additional firefighter we get to calls and drills/training has a positive impact on our ISO rating, and thus your insurance premium? One more reason you might consider coming down and helping out! You can get further information on the how’s and what’s of ISO ratings at www.isomitigation.com. If you live in Wrightstown, contact your insurance company and be sure that they know about the new ISO rating and see if you are eligible for a discount. Note that State Farm Insurance does NOT use the ISO rating system to determine their rates, so this will not apply to State Farm customers. If your insurance premium has gone down because of this, we’d like to know (at least what percentage). We hope you get to benefit from the fruits of our labor! Drop us an email through our website, www.lfco.org
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