Paso Robles gets low fire protection rating. City says the department needs more money
Paso Robles recently received a low to mixed evaluation of its fire protection services — and the city is urging residents to invest more money in a department officials say is understaffed.
Fire Chief Jonathan Stornetta on Sept. 1 presented the Paso Robles City Council with a report from the Insurance Services Office (ISO), which evaluates communities’ fire protection capabilities across the country to help insurance companies assess property and casualty risks.
The review was presented in the middle of the November election campaign — just as the city is encouraging voters to approve a one-cent sales tax ballot measure, funds from which would likely be used to fund fire and paramedic services, among other listed priorities.
ISO reviews communities by looking at their emergency communications, fire departments and water supply, according to the evaluation report. Emergency communications account for 10% of the total rating, the water supply counts for 40% and the fire department counts for 50%.
The city’s emergency communications received a score of 8.15 out of 10, while the fire department received a 32.88 out of 50 and the water supply received a 33.72 out of 40.
Paso Robles received an overall score of 75.55 out of 105.5, and the city received a community classification of Class 3/3X — the same rating the city received during its 2014 evaluation, according to a city staff report.
The 3/3X rating represents evaluations for two separate areas — those with fire hydrants that are closer to Paso Robles’ fire stations and those farther away that lack hydrants.
The Class 3 rating applies to buildings within 5 miles of a fire station and 1,000 feet from a “creditable water supply,” such as a fire hydrant. The rating means the city got an overall score of about 71% when combining its communications, fire department and water supply scores, the staff report said.
The Class 3X rating applies to buildings farther away from fire stations and water sources, and it’s one of the lowest ratings a community can receive, the staff report said.
“The owners of these properties have potential to see significantly increased insurance premiums,” the staff report said.
The city claims staff is “already hearing from homeowners in Paso Robles about their high and increasing property insurance premiums.” To improve the city’s score, leaders recommend “investing resources in the department to increase the personnel and equipment.”
“Assuming that the improvements to the department were paid for by a supplemental sales tax measure, and such an increase in capabilities in the department led to a large enough improvement in the city’s ISO rating to cause just a $60 per year reduction in average property insurance premiums, then the improvements would have more than paid for themselves,” the staff report said.
To read the full ISO report, visit prcity.com/DocumentCenter/View/30068/ISO-2020-Summary-Report-PDF. To learn more about ISO’s public protection evaluations, visit isomitigation.com/ppc.
