Abington Township Fire Department (ATFD) Earns High Rating on Insurance Industry Assessment

Abington Township….Abington Township Fire Department (ATFD) has improved its already excellent performance on an insurance industry assessment that rates a fire department’s ability to protect the community it serves.

ATFD’s superb fire suppression capacity, coupled with Abington Township’s fire prevention codes and water infrastructure, earned the township an ISO Public Protection Classification Program Class 3 rating. ISO assigns ratings of Class 1 through Class 10, with Class 1 being the best. Of the 2,568 municipalities in Pennsylvania who participate in the ISO Public Protection Classification program, only 5% have a rating of Class 3 or better.

The new rating not only bests ATFD’s previous Class 4 designation, it may save township residents and property owners money on their fire insurance premiums. That’s because Insurance companies use the rating to set fire insurance premiums and generally offer lower premiums in communities with better fire protection.

The ISO Public Protection Classification (PPC) is run by Verisk Analytics. “The ISO Public Protection Classification (PPC) program recognizes the efforts of communities to provide fire protection services for citizens and property owners,” according to the company website. “A community’s investment in fire mitigation is a proven and reliable predicator of future fire losses. By offering economic benefits for communities that invest in their firefighting services, the program provides an additional incentive for improving and maintaining public fire protection.”

“We are proud to announce that Abington Township has improved our ISO rating to a Class 3,” said Frank Schuck, Chief of Edge Hill Fire Company. “The township’s new ISO classification is a major achievement for the Abington Township Fire Department.”

Edge Hill is one of the five fire companies that together comprise the Abington Township Fire Department. The others are Abington Fire Company, McKinley Fire Company, Weldon Fire Company, and Roslyn Fire Company.

For more information about ATFD, including how to become a volunteer, please visit www.AbingtonFD.org.