Insurance Services Office (ISO)
What is an ISO rating?
A company called the ISO (Insurance Services Office) creates ratings for fire departments and their surrounding communities. The ratings calculate how well-equipped fire departments are to put out structure fires in that community.
The ISO provides this score (also known as an ISO fire score, an ISO fire insurance rating, and a Public Protection Classification [PPC]) to homeowners’ insurance companies, who then use it to help set homeowners’ insurance rates. The more well-equipped your fire department is to put out a fire, the less likely your house is to burn down. That makes your home less risky and, therefore, less expensive to insure.
PPCs can range from 1 to 10, and in the ISO rating scale, a lower number is better. A 1 is the best possible rating, while a 10 means the fire department did not meet the ISO's minimum requirements.
Using the credit points and various formulas, ISO calculates a total score on a scale of 0 to 105.5. According to the ISO's Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS), there are five main criteria to a fire rating score:
- 50% comes from the quality of your local fire department, including staffing levels, training, and proximity of the firehouse.
- 40% comes from the availability of water supply, including the prevalence of fire hydrants and how much water is available for putting out fires.
- 10% comes from the quality of the area's emergency communication systems (911).
- An extra 5.5% comes from community outreach, including fire prevention and safety courses.
What is the ISO rating for Medina County ESD # 5?
As of 2019 Medina County ESD #5 has a split class rating of 2/10
The City of Natalia and any unincorporated area that is within 5 road miles of either Natalia volunteer fire station #1 at 211 Pearson St. Natalia or Natalia volunteer fire station #2 at 19210 FM 463, Natalia is a class 2 and anything beyond 5 road miles of a fire station is a 10.
The grading was activated in the insurance systems as of October 1, 2019. Please contact your agents to ensure you are taking advantage of these potential savings.
Insurance Services Office PPC
Texas Department of Insurance
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