ISO-- Insurance Services Office, Inc. Established a Public Protection Classification system (PPC). 

It has been in use for many years outside of Texas. Texas was the last state to change to this system. For more information contact the Texas Insurance Commission’s WEB site.

PPC Class is the rating an area receives. The best rating is 1 and worst rating is 10. Areas with mixed urban and rural receive two ratings. Under this new policy KVFD is rated 5/9, Five for urban and nine for rural. The Schedule measures the major elements of a fire district or city’s fire suppression system. The classification is divided into three major sections. These are; the fire department organization in the area; the water supply in the area; and how fire alarms are received and handled for the community. Each section is weighted in the finial summary. Water supplies make up 40% of the available credit. Fire department operations account for 50% of the credit. Receiving and handling fire alarms accounts for 10% of the available credit.

KVFD can control and improve on the ratings of our fire department but this only represents 50% of the total summary points. A large portion of the rating dependents on the water supplies available to the fire department. If you live in a MUD serviced area then most likely you have a hydrant within 1000 feet of your home capable of supply

All volunteer departments are in bold letters. Paid departments are underlined. Klein falls into the middle rating for the volunteer departments. The last time Klein had an ISO audit was in April of 1988 when the PPC system was not in use by Texas.. 

Anyone who pays homeowners insurance knows they paid more in 1998 than in previous years. Switching from the old KEY system to the new ISO/PPC system increased the average base insurance rate in our area about 6.5% regardless of PPC rating. This is due to the change in the insurance rating system, which gave credit to Klein because they were so close to Houston. State Farm provided some examples of the actual effect the ISO ratings will have on identical homes located in three areas with PPC ratings of 4, 5, and 6. A home with a $150,000 value was used to compare the annual rates for fire insurance.

ESTIMATED HOMEOWNER’S INSURANCE 
WITH DIFFERENT ISO/PCC RATINGS

Work Continues at KVFD

The Tactical leadership of KVFD spent most of 1998 setting up programs within the fire department, which are designed to address the new PPC schedules. These programs will meet the existing requirements of the schedule as well as improve the rating of the fire district when it is audited again. Several new pumpers and a new ladder truck have been placed into service in the last 18 months. A new fire station was commissioned in the Spring Creek Oaks subdivision area as part of the long range plan to lower the Klein Fire District’s ISO rating