WFD receives new fire insurance rating

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) —The  Wilmington Fire Department celebrated a historic moment on Friday, seeing an increase in its fire insurance rating.

Wilmington Fire is now an ISO Class I department, a rating determined by the Insurance Services Office, also known as the ISO. The agency scores fire departments on how they are doing against industry standards to determine property insurance costs.

The rating reflects how prepared a community is for fires. In 1978, Wilmington Fire improved from an ISO Class III to a Class II.

The department has had a Class II ISO designation for more than forty years until today.

“It’s such a rare honor. You know, — for us to be able to be called a Class I Fire Department. So, it’s a great sense of pride, and it’s a reward for many, many years of hard work,” said Steve Mason, Wilmington fire chief.

“We have one of the best departments in the country, one of the best departments in the state, and when we evaluated this fire assessment that we did several years ago, we wanted to see what we could do better to go from an ISO II to an ISO I, and these men and women have delivered,” said Bill Saffo, Wilmington mayor.

There are nearly 30,000 fire departments in the U.S.  Wilmington fire is one of just 338 departments with a class one ISO rating.