CULVER CITY : Fire Dept. Rated Tops in Emergency Response

The Culver City Fire Department is in the top tier of fire departments nationwide, according to an insurance industry organization that audits municipal fire departments and rates their response to emergencies.

The city’s new Class 1 rating takes into account factors including the type of fire and emergency equipment Culver City owns, the number of fire stations in the city, and the city’s water system. The ratings are distributed every 10 years by the New-Jersey based Insurance Services Office (ISO).

Only 18 other cities nationwide have received a Class 1 rating. Other area cities to make the list include Beverly Hills, Anaheim, Arcadia, Glendale, Santa Ana, Stockton and Vernon. On the Westside, Malibu is rated Class 4, West Hollywood is rated Class 3, and Santa Monica is rated Class 2.

Culver City was given a higher rating thanks largely to its new water system, which features larger, higher-capacity pipes, said Acting Fire Chief Phillip Garcia.

Insurance companies generally use ISO’s ratings as the standard for determining how much individual and commercial property owners should pay for fire insurance.

However, property owners will probably not see much of a change in their insurance premiums as a result of the fire department’s higher ratings, said Jim Polson, vice president of ISO.

For Culver City firefighters, the importance of the upgrade is more personal than pragmatic, according to Garcia. The city’s 87 uniformed firefighters respond to emergencies in as little as three minutes and 45 seconds, and the department answered a total of 3,700 emergency calls last year.

“We’ve always taken pride in our operation, but this really measures how well we’re doing our job,” Garcia said.