ISO Rating

The Insurance Services Office (ISO) collects and evaluates information from communities in the United States on their structure fire suppression capabilities. The data collected is analyzed and then a Public Protection Classification (PPC) grade is assigned to the community.

Statistical data on insurance losses bears out the relationship between excellent fire protection – as measured by the PPC program – and low fire losses. So, insurance companies use PPC information for marketing, underwriting, and to help establish fair premiums for homeowners and commercial fire insurance. In general, the price of fire insurance in a community with a good PPC grade is substantially lower than in a community with a poor PPC grade.

ISO analyzes the relevant data and assigns a PPC grade – a number from 1-10. Class 1 represents an exemplary fire suppression program, and a Class 10 indicates that the area’s fire suppression program not meet ISO’s minimum criteria.

The most recent ISO evaluation of the Cedarburg area took place in March 2019. At that time, the City of Cedarburg was assigned a PPC grade of 3. With an ISO rating of 3, the City of Cedarburg joins 3,490 other Departments from across the Country in maintaining outstanding fire protection.

Due mostly to being non-hydranted, the Town of Cedarburg was assigned a PPC Grade of 5. There are 9,214 departments throughout the Country that share this rating, which is still outstanding. The average home will not see much of a difference in premiums between a rating of a 5 and a rating of 3.