North Carolina Insurance Commissioner and State Fire Marshal Wayne Goodwin announced on Oct. 16 that the Cleveland Community Volunteer Fire Department completed its routine inspection and received a 3 (town) /5 (rural) rating, effective Feb. 1, 2015.

The inspection, conducted by officials with the Department of Insurance Office of State Fire Marshal (OSFM), is required on a regular basis as part of the North Carolina Response Rating System (NCRRS). Among other things, the routine inspections look for proper staffing levels, sufficient equipment, proper maintenance of equipment, communications capabilities and availability of water sources.

The 3 rating for the town of Cleveland insurance district is an improvement over the previous rating of 6 and the 5 rating for the West Rowan insurance district (rural) is an improvement over the previous rating of 9s. The NCRRS rating system ranges from 1 (highest) to 10 (not recognized as a certified fire department by the state), with most rural departments falling into the 9s category. While lower ratings do not necessarily indicate poor service, a higher rating does suggest that a department is overall better equipped to respond to fires in its district. Higher ratings can significantly lower homeowners’ insurance rates in that fire district. Ratings from 6 to 10 affect homeowners rates whereas 1 to 5 affect commercial and business rates.

“I’d like to congratulate Chief Payne for his department’s performance and for the hard work of all the department members,” said Goodwin. “The citizens in the town of Cleveland and surrounding community should rest easy knowing they have a fine group of firefighters protecting them and their property in case of an emergency.”

“I am very proud of our department,” said Deputy Chief Greg Summitt. “We have worked on many improvements for the past several years to build up for this inspection. It took a lot of man hours from the department members to achieve this rating. We still have some areas that we need to improve in, like replacing an outdated fire station which in turn will allow us to locate our ladder truck to better respond to areas that it is needed. In addition to housing larger apparatus, the new station will provide living quarters to staff personnel which was an area that we did poorly in. We really need to strongly look at having permanent staffing at the station to get the trucks out quicker, but having a station capable of housing the personnel is our first priority.”

Out of nearly 1,600 fire departments in the State of North Carolina, there are only 29 other 3-rated departments. Summitt urges everyone to call their insurance agency in February.