Peachtree City Councilman Eric Imker is urging all residents to call their insurance company to see if they qualify for a rate reduction.
Effective Feb. 1, the Insurance Service Office upgraded the city’s fire safety rating from a class four to a class three. Residents should notify their company of the matter to qualify for a potential discount.
Although not all insurance companies will honor a discount for the rating improvement, Imker noted that the change will save him $115 a year on his policy.
“All I had to do was call the insurance company and let them know our ISO went from a four to a three and it was effective Feb. 1,” Imker said. “That was a huge savings for me.”
The class three rating puts Peachtree City among the top 6.4 percent of more than 55,000 fire departments in the U.S.
The upgrading of the safety rating was largely attributed to the addition of new personnel to the fire service, as there are now 19 firefighters on duty each day with an additional four volunteers.
In addition to its larger personnel base, the city has also upgraded its fleet of fire apparatus, adopted a vehicle replacement plan, and improved the amount and quality of training also thanks to new facilities, according to Fire Chief Ed Eiswerth. The city has its own burn building, pump testing facility, roof simulator, gas fire simulator, and other modern training aids.
In addition to the fire department review, ISO’s rating also evaluates the status of the city’s water system and its communications system, which total 50 percent of the final ISO score.
