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Fire chief working to reduce rates for insurance
By jeanne starmack
campbell
The fire department is starting to build up manpower, but it will be a while before a rating that affects residents’ homeowners insurance can be reviewed for improvement.
The fire department must be able to have four firefighters at each fire, and they must be from the Campbell department — mutual aid doesn’t count.
The department also must be able to produce at least six months’ worth of training records, fire Chief Nick Hrlec has told The Vindicator. Then, he can contact the Insurance Services Office, a private agency that rates cities’ firefighting capabilities for insurance companies, to do a review.
The ISO raised its rating for Campbell from a 6 to a 10, the worst on its scale, in June. Many residents have seen their insurance rates rise as a result.
The city has been trying to combat the department’s lack of manpower, which also is affecting the training — Hrlec has said there aren’t enough firefighters to get together for sessions.
The city’s five-year financial-recovery plan, which it has to have while it’s in fiscal emergency, calls for the transition from a paid department to an all-volunteer one. The five full-time firefighters in the department now can remain until retirement.
Mayor George Krinos also appointed 10 auxiliary firefighters several months ago.
The difference between volunteers and auxiliaries, city finance director Sherman Miles has said, is the way they are paid. Volunteers are paid per fire, and auxiliaries are paid by the hour. The plan calls for volunteers, not auxiliaries, he has pointed out.
Krinos said, though, that council appropriated the money in August for the auxiliaries.
Krinos said the main holdup with adding manpower has been turnout gear. There isn’t enough to outfit 10 more firefighters. Gear from days when there were nine full-time firefighters — before the fiscal emergency status prompted layoffs in 2005 — is too old, Krinos said.
Hrlec said, however, that the department gradually is getting enough gear together and has recently ordered enough for five firefighters. Meanwhile, auxiliaries are showing up in their own gear. “But we want them to have Campbell gear,” he said.
Auxiliaries that Krinos appointed have been coming to fires, he said.
Capt. Dave Horvath said three came to an apartment fire on Chambers Street on Tuesday.