DeKALB — The DeKalb Fire Department has accomplished an Insurance Services Office Class 2 rating that could decrease homeowners’ insurance costs beginning March 1.

The Insurance Services Office [ISO] of Commercial Risk Services measures and grades city services on a five-year cycle. ISO is an international company, which insurance companies use when determining homeowners’ insurance rates.

Fire departments are measured on a scale from one to 10, one being the highest. The DeKalb Fire Department had previously obtained an ISO Class 4 rating in 2012.

DeKalb is one of 1,324 fire departments across the country to receive an ISO Class 2 rating, which puts the city in the top 3.4 percent of the nation, according to a Dec. 6 City of DeKalb document.

Eric Hicks, DeKalb Fire Department fire chief, said there are different premiums in a homeowners ‘policy, like theft and personal property, and ISO helps to establish the premium rate for fire insurance.

“It affects your fire insurance portion of that premium, so actually the way it works is the lower the rating, so we are a two, the better your insurance premium is,” Hicks said.

The improved ISO rating will lower the insurance rates for home and business owners within five miles of one of the three fire stations after its March 1 implementation. Not all insurance companies utilize the ISO rating system for review, but there is likely to be a rate reduction for insurance companies that do.

Hicks said because the fire department covers rural areas, there are only a couple square miles to fall outside of the five miles, but the majority of the city’s district is within five miles of a fire station.

The DeKalb Fire Department developed an improvement plan after receiving its previous ISO rating and has employed new programs and increased training.

Hicks said ISO ratings are heavily based on training, so the department adjusted their plan accordingly. Hicks also said adding a second ladder truck and the city’s purchase of a training tower factored into the improved rating.

“The biggest thing, and we’re not done with it yet, but I would say commercial building inspection pre-plan program that was instituted two years ago,” Hicks said. “I mean it’s not finalized; it’s a three-year process to even institute it. So that was probably the biggest change that we had to deal with.”

Of the 148 fires recorded for 2016, 82 were structure fires, according to the 2016 DeKalb Fire Department Annual Report.

“We identified potential unsafe conditions in local businesses,” said Jeff McMaster, DeKalb Fire Department deputy fire chief. “So we instituted a program to start inspecting commercial properties, and when you can prevent the fires from happening, that’s going to have a direct correlation to your fire loss.”

McMaster said the building inspection program takes time with multiple inspections throughout the process because no business is ever free of problems.

“You come up with a plan, the immediate hazards you have taken care of right away, but the other polished stuff you work on a plan with the business owner, and then they work on it in your defined time frame, and then you go back and make sure that they did it correctly, and the business owners have been great,” McMaster said. “Overall they’ve accepted it, appreciated it, and we have a good working relationship with the business owners in the city.”

McMaster said the pre-planning aspect of the program gathers information on building qualities like construction, measurements, and fire suppression systems to be retrievable by firefighters enroute when responding to calls.

DeKalb Mayor Jerry Smith said he is very proud of the fire department for improving its ISO Class 2 rating and feels it tells developers that DeKalb is a city that cares.

“I think any business looking at the city of DeKalb looks at not only the quality of the buildings, but the quality of fire protection services that that city provides,” Smith said.

McMaster said showing potential businesses we care about city services and infrastructure sends a positive message.

“This is a good thing to attract new business to town because it is a measure of your city services,” Hicks said.