Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District is working to improve its program to prevent its insurance classification from being downgraded, officials say.
Insurance Services Office, which rates fire protection services, has completed a review of SHFAD and is prepared to downgrade its fire insurance classification from a Class 4/8B to a Class 5/8B. Some insurance companies use ISO’s ratings to calculate their fire insurance premiums, so a lower rating could result in higher premiums for people living within the area served by SHFAD.
The first number in the classification refers to the city’s rating. The second number and letter, 8B, refers to the district’s rural rating, and that one remains unchanged.
District President Don Hopkins has written a letter and responded to the ISO review. The district will have three months to work with ISO on program improvements to maintain a rating of Class 4.
“We will meet these deadlines for that and start working on it,” Fire Chief Mike Beaver said.
The main reason for the downgrade was because the district needs a ladder company, essentially aerial equipment, according to a letter to Hopkins and the district. In 1995, the last ISO review, the insurance carrier only required the district to have a service company, which it already had.
“(A ladder company) would be advantageous like when you had that mill fire,” Hopkins said, but at $400,000 and up, “there’s no way, in the next five years anyway, we’re going to be able to find that kind of money for that.”
In the past, the Lebanon Fire District has assisted Sweet Home on fires with its ladder truck, Hopkins said.
It’s useful with large buildings, like mills, and it would have been useful with the McDonald house a couple of years ago, Hopkins said, but the district is not planning to get a ladder truck at this point.
“We need a piece of aerial apparatus,” Beaver said. The department’s longest ladder is 35 feet.
Even in a single-family residential fire, aerial equipment can be helfpul, allowing firefighters access to the roof without leaning a ladder up against it, Beaver said. It also can help with rescues from second-story windows. The equipment is not just for high-rises.
The district has no way to save for such equipment right now, Beaver said, not with the district having to buy new ambulances every two years. The last ambulance cost $112,000. A new engine will cost $300,000. A “Cadillac” ladder truck can cost $750,000.
Aerial equipment would give the district enough to points to maintain a rating of Class 4, Beaver said.
The district scored 58 on the review, Hopkins said. A score of 60 would have netted a rating of Class 4/8B.
The district can gain a full point by hiring a new paramedic-firefighter, Hopkins said. The district had already planned to do so and is ready to begin the process and hire a new paramedic by the end of March.
Just cutting down on overtime with a new paramedic will almost cover the cost of the new paramedic, Hopkins said.
The ISO review was that it was mistaken about the amount of hose loaded on trucks, Hopkins said. The review said the district did not have enough hose on its trucks when in fact it does, and his response addresses that.
The district has 1,200 feet of 2.5-inch and 4.5-inch hose on its trucks, Beaver said. It has more at the Fire Hall and substations.
The district also is setting up a meeting with the city of Sweet Home to work on an agreement for hydrant testing and making sure hydrants have enough pressure, Hopkins said. The city has equipment for checking the water pressure.
With these improvements, the Sweet Home area will retain its insurance classification, Hopkins said.
The ISO review surveys districts on a variety of areas, including dispatch, apparatus, training and water supply, Beaver said. This includes a variety of details. The first question asked of Beaver was whether the district’s phone number was listed three different places in the phone book.
A perfect rating would require fire districts to have pre-fire plans on all commercial, industrial and institutional buildings in the district, with inspections every six months, Beaver said. “We don’t have the personnel or time. When are we going to do that?”
“I’m pretty sure Lebanon and Albany can’t do that,” Beaver said. That’s just a part of the details the ISO review covers.
In other business, the district board on Jan. 17 settled a two-year contract with its paramedics last week.
In the agreement, paramedics will receive a 3-percent salary increase retroactive to July 1 and a 2-percent salary increase effective Jan. 1. In 2006-07, paramedics will receive a 2-percent wage increase.
For 2005-06, they will receive up to 1 percent of their wages in matching funds to a retirement program. That match program decreases to .5 percent in 2006-07. District employees do not participate in Social Security. They do participate in the Public Employees Retirement System.
For insurance, the district will pay 90 percent and paramedics will pay 10 percent of their premium, which will be about $866 per month for a family under a new plan. Last year, insurance for a family cost about $1,265 per month, and the district covered up to $875 per month. The paramedics and district split the costs over $875. The district had paid about $1,070 per month for families under the old insurance plan.
The contract affects five full-time paramedics. It will include the new paramedic the district is planning to hire.
“I think the employees recognized the pinch we were in,” Hopkins said.
For the first time, the department’s non-represented employees received the same deal for compensation, Beaver said.
With the raises, firefighter-paramedics start at $42,744 per year. After five years, with good evaluations, they earn $51,960 per year. The department’s three battalion chiefs, not members of the bargaining unit, earn $60,144. The fire chief earns $70,512.