The Valparaiso Fire Department has maintained its prestigious Class 2 rating by the Insurance Service Office (ISO), one of just 12 fire departments in the entire state to achieve this standard or better, announced Valparaiso Fire Chief Chad Dutz. “This ISO rating puts Valparaiso in the top one percent of the 770 Indiana communities protected by a fire department,” said Mayor Matt Murphy. “This extraordinary rating, putting Valparaiso in the top 1 percent of the state, is the result of hard work by the Fire Department and Valparaiso City Services. Valparaiso provides superior and reliable fire safety for our community,” he said. The excellent rating translates into more affordable insurance rates for Valparaiso homeowners.
ISO is an independent, national company that serves the insurance industry and communities by providing information about risk in communities throughout the United States. ISO carefully analyzes each community and then assigns a rating from 1 to 10. Class 1 represents exemplary public protection, and Class 10 indicates that the area's fire-suppression program doesn't meet ISO's minimum criteria. Valparaiso has steadily improved its rating, from a 6 in in 2006 to a 3 in 2007 and first earning a class 2 in 2017. This new evaluation maintains the extraordinary rating.
“We are the smallest community in Indiana to have achieved the Class 2 rating,” said Fire Chief Chad Dutz. The rating is based on three main areas, dispatching (10 percent), water supply systems (40 percent), and fire department (50 percent). “We’ve been able to achieve this superior rating through excellent training, commitment and teamwork with our City Services. We’re an extraordinarily safe city,” he said. To learn more about the Valparaiso Fire Department, visit valpo.us