ISO CLASS 4

The Batesburg-Leesville Fire Department became the first department in Lexington and Saluda Counties to receive a Class 4 rating through the Insurance Services Office (ISO) in October 2001. Following the review, the department learned that they had moved from a Class 6 rating to a Class 4, which is the best rating in both Lexington and Saluda Counties. While only 6.9% of the country has a Class 4 rating this places the department in the top 10.2% of all departments rated by ISO in the country and in the top 8.7% in the Carolinas and Georgia. Only 4,563 departments nationwide and 124 statewide have achieved a Class 4 rating or better according to the isomitigation.com Web sites.

This lower rating will result in lower fire insurance rates for commercial and residential property within Batesburg-Leesville. For residential property owners, you can expect to see a reduction in the range from 4 to 10% while commercial property owners should see an even larger reduction in the range of 9 to 12%. Information was acquired from Farm Bureau, State Farm, Nationwide, Batesburg Insurance Agency (which includes SAFECO and All-State) and the Tidwell Agency (Traveler’s Insurance) for residential property while Batesburg Insurance Agency and State Farm provided information on commercial property.

The average budget for departments in South Carolina with a Class 4 rating and two stations (such as B-L) was $1,061,207, according to figures from the South Carolina’s Fireman’s Association. This is in a stark contrast to B-L’s budget of $224,000 for 2001. For these 15 departments (only 13 reported budget information), they also average 23 paid firefighters while B-L managed to acquire the Class 4 rating with just one paid firefighter. Of these 15 departments, they averaged 21 volunteer firefighters while B-L relies heavily upon their 49 volunteers.

The department has worked towards this improvement for several years with a recent push during the tenure of Chief Tommy Shealy. In the past six years the department has added two new engines and a new tanker, in addition to a support truck and a brush truck. While the brush truck and tanker did not figure into this rating, other equipment was added that did help in the new rating.

As part of the grading schedule, the fire department is required to perform annual pump tests of trucks, hose test (nearly three miles of hose), and inspections of businesses. The department is also graded on their training (hours of training per person) and personnel (number of firefighters responding to fires). Additional grading is based on the pump capacity of the department; equipment carried, and travel distance of apparatus.

While the town’s new rating is the result of years of hard work from many different people, more improvements can be accomplished in the years to come. The goal of the Batesburg-Leesville Fire Department is for repeated improvement in our rating as we continue to serve the community to the best of our ability.