CCFD Chairman Said Insurance Rating Drop was Due to Training Issues

The Central Coventry Fire District’s recent ratings downgrade by the organization that rates fire districts around the country is due to training requirements not meeting minimum standards, Board Chairman Fred Gralinksi said Monday.

A plan to rectify those issues is in the works and residents should feel confident they will not see increased insurance premiums, Gralinksi said in a statement.

Gralinksi said that the board was ”a surprise and shock to myself and the other members of the CCFD Board of Directors” and the group behind the ratings, the Insurance Service Organization, was immediately contacted.

“ISO’s response was very simple and very much at odds with statements made by the Central Coventry Fire District union president David Gorman, who ascribed the low rating to pumper trucks and ladder trucks being removed from service,” Gralinksi said. “In ISO’s email response to our query, they indicated that Central Coventry’s lowest possible rating was solely due to the fact that the district did not meet ISO’s minimum training requirements, based on a survey conducted on 1/28/2014. In response, the Central Coventry Fire District has proposed a plan to remediate the training issues that ISO has identified. ISO has indicated to us that those changes should improve the district’s rating.”

The remediation effort must be in place by June 23 of next year, a “deadline the district will meet,” Gralinksi said. “The District continues to employ a union Battalion Chief for Training and adequate training funds are included in the budget. Our board will work with the Receiver and encourage and help him to do everything possible to ensure that Central Coventry Fire District’s operations meet best practice expectations for fire departments and the ISO rating is returned to the previous level.”

Gorman, for his part, said last month that he believed staffing reductions led to the rating hit, not necessarily just the equipment. On Monday, he and other firefighters noted that a training position had gone vacant for two years.

The International Association of Firefighters Local 3372, the fire union, has been calling for a town-wide fire department to create savings.

It’s an idea that seems to be gaining steam in Coventry. A petition has been circulating and the Town Council is expected to face increasing pressure — from both the fire districts and firefighters and taxpayers — to do something, and soon.