New fire equipment should improve Dougherty County insurance rating

ALBANY — Dougherty County commissioners got an up-close look at the new firetrucks and fire hose purchased using county special-purpose local-option sales tax funds that is expected to lower insurance rates for hundreds of residents and businesses in the unincorporated portion of the county.

Albany Fire Department Chief James Carswell gave the commission a rundown of the process that led to Friday’s delivery of four new service trucks especially created for AFD by Ten-8 Fire Equipment of Forsyth and enough specially-made fire hose that is expected to significantly lower insurance rates of residences and businesses in the county that are located more than 1,000 feet from fire hydrants.

Such structures in the county have generally been assigned a 9 Insurance Services Office rating. Carswell said once ISO tests and approves AFD’s ability to deliver the hose to a fire scene in a prescribed amount of time, those rates will drop to a 2. The lower the rating, the lower insurance rates will be for property owners.

“We know of one business in the Putney area that currently has a class 9 rating,” Carswell said. “He’s paying $17,000 a year in fire insurance. With a 2 rating, his (insurance) broker said his costs would go down to $7,000 a year. We know of some businesses in the county where ratings have gone from 9 to 2 that had their rates drop $15,000 to $16,000 a year, and some residences where the rate dropped by more than $1,000.”

The decision to purchase enough fire hose to cover structures up to 6,000 feet from hydrants, he said, “is a huge benefit to our taxpayers, especially those in the unincorporated area of the county.”

Carswell handed out information that indicates 1,077 parcels in the county range in distance from 1,000 to 5,000 feet from a hydrant and another 144 range from 5,000 to 6,000.

Under ISO regulations, the top rating for structures not located within 1,000 feet of a hydrant is a class 9. But Carswell and Assistant AFD Chief Ron Rowe found in their research that some portions of the country had been granted lower ratings when their fire departments showed proof that they could deliver the required amount of water within a specific period of time. AFD got the go-ahead from ISO to utilize that strategy and sought funding from the County Commission to buy enough specially-designed hose to reach structures up to 5,000 feet away.

County Administrator Richard Crowdis did further research and discovered the fire department could purchace enough hose to extend its reach to 6,000 feet for only $30,000 more, and he suggested adding the additional cost to the SPLOST allocation. The commission approved the measure.

“Public safety has been the beneficiary of much funding because of SPLOST,” District 1 Commissioner Lamar Hudgins said. “This shows how SPLOST absolutely benefits our citizens. It’s one of the best testimonials we could have.”

District 6 Commissioner Anthony Jones asked Carswell if the fire department could do anything for a number of citizens in his district who have seen insurance rates increase.

“A lot of people in District 6 have had their insurance rates double recently,” he said. “What can we do about that?”

Carswell said even structures located within 6,000 feet of fire hydrants are not available for lower fire ratings if they don’t live within five miles of a fire station.

“Unfortunately, there’s nothing now that we can do,” he said. “We certainly would have no objection to adding a new fire station in that area, but that’s something this table would have to address. We would man a new station, but the county would have to pay for it and for the equipment.”

Carswell did say, though, that if 85 percent of a jurisdiction’s area falls within a specific ISO rating, it would allow for 100 percent of its area to fall under the lower rating.

“We think (the addition of structures within the 6,000-foot limit) would give us 85 percent coverage,” the fire chief said.

Carswell said, in response to a question from Commission Chairman Chris Cohilas, that he hopes to have the additional county structures fall under ISO class 2 guidelines by the time the company releases its new manual in January 2016.