City’s fire rating due for a review

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Eunice Fire Chief Mike Arnold said the city’s fire rating, which determines property insurance costs, is due for a review next year.
The city is rated at 4 on a scale where 1 is best and 10 is worst.
Alderwoman Connie Thibodeaux placed the fire chief on Tuesday’s agenda to discuss the fire rating. She noted the city’s 4 rating is “not that bad for a small city,” but also said the city had a 3 rating a few years ago.
Moving up from 4 to 3 would save 15 to 20 percent a year on household insurance, she said. 
The fire rating is based on a 100 point scale and Eunice has a 63.74 score, according to information Arnold presented Tuesday.
Communication account for 10 points and Eunice scored 8.88.
Fire department operations account for 50 points and Eunice tallied 27.07.
There is 40 points maximum for water supply and Eunice scored 33.93.
There is another score called divergence, which is combination of the fire department operation and water supply scores. Eunice had a negative 6.13.
Another 5.5 points is possible as bonus if the department has a policy manual, he said. “We have them,” he said.
The department has changed many of its practices in the past couple of years, Arnold said.
Training records have been improved, he said. This year the department expects to log 2,500 training hours, he said. Arnold indicated that includes Fire districts 4 and 6.
“I think we are going to be fine on the training hours this year,” he said.
Communications are another area that can be improved, but will require about $10,000 to fix, he said. The problem apparently is to improve communication through the 911 district.
Assessing all the points possible, Arnold said “ We ought to be pretty good.”
Arnold said the city is rated every five years, but there can be times when the city is rated more often.