2017/06/13 - Mayor's Column: ISO Rating Upgraded

“An Open Door to O’Fallon”
A Weekly Note from O’Fallon Mayor Herb Roach

The City of O’Fallon works hard creating a community that is safe for people to invest in, not only their money or business, but also their family’s time and energy. O’Fallon’s Public Safety Department is tremendous and I bet that nearly every O’Fallon resident would agree! But, it’s also nice to have an objective observer echo praise for our first responders.

The Insurance Services Office (ISO) recently upgraded O’Fallon’s fire rating from Class 4 to Class 3. A Class 3 rating is a prestigious achievement. Only 3,409 communities nationwide and 150 communities in Illinois have such a rating.

The ISO evaluates more than 46,000 communities in the United States on their fire suppression capabilities and rates them on a scale from 1 to 10 with a Class 1 being the best and Class 10 the worst. 50% of the rating comes from the Fire Department’s capabilities, 40% comes from the water system’s ability to provide enough water flow to fight a fire, and 10% comes from the Emergency Communications Center’s efficiency at dispatching first responders to a fire.

This new rating is important because a community’s investment in fire mitigation is a proven and reliable predictor of future fire losses. The ISO study states that “Statistical data on insurance losses bears out the relationship between excellent fire protection and low fire losses.” As a result, insurance companies often use ISO ratings to help establish premiums for homeowners and commercial fire insurance. Communities with lower fire ratings tend to have lower homeowners’ insurance rates. Insurance companies have their own methods for calculating insurance rates, but O’Fallon homeowners may see a reduction in their premiums because of the upgrade.

Congratulations to the O’Fallon Fire Department, Public Works, and Telecommunications employees for achieving this significant upgrade and to the O’Fallon City Council for providing the vision and resources to make it possible.

In addition to the new fire rating, the O’Fallon EMS Department also recently received the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline EMS Bronze Award for implementing quality improvement measures for the treatment of patients who experience severe heart attacks.

As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open!