What is a Fire Rating?

The Brentwood Fire and Rescue Department is rated a Class 2 by the Insurance Services Office (ISO) and its Public Protection Classification program.  The ISO reviews fire departments throughout the country on various benchmarks and assigns a grade used by many property insurance companies to establish appropriate fire insurance premiums for residential and commercial properties.  Class 1 generally represents superior property fire protection, and Class 10 indicates that the area’s fire suppression program does not meet ISO’s minimum criteria.  Generally, the price of property insurance in a community with a good fire rating is lower than in a community with a poor fire rating.  This could mean measurable savings in insurance premiums for homes and businesses alike.

Fire Rating and Insurance

• ISO ratings are one of many factors that affect insurance premiums
• Other factors include age of the structure, construction material, and loss history in a particular area could affect the base rate.
• Factors such as property value, deductible amount, multiple policies, security systems, and credit ratings affect an individual’s rates.
• Your insurance company may request a letter verifying proof of the Class 2 rating. 

How Scoring Works

To determine a community's Public Protection Classification (PPC), ISO conducts a field survey that reviews and establishes more than a hundred data points. The points are compiled into 32 subcategories and four main sections:

1. Emergency communications systems
2. Fire department
3. Water supply
4. Community risk reduction

Between 2013 and 2017, Brentwood Fire and Rescue had a 31.53% improvement attributed to:

Communications

• Enhanced communication collaboration between Fire & Rescue, Police and Technology

Fire Services 

• Utilizing automatic and mutual aid
• Superior training
• Excellent equipment
• Comprehensive deployment analysis to maximize resource effectiveness

 Community Risk Reduction

• Emergency Response
• Engineering (Codes)
• Enforcement (Inspections)
• Education

National and State Rankings

Brentwood is in top 3% of Fire Departments Across America

• 48,632 fire departments rated in 2017
• 1,342 rated Class I or II (2.75%)
• 875 Tennessee agencies rated
• 29 rated Class I or Class II (3%)