Good news for homeowners and businesses in Marina: fire insurance premiums in the city are set to go down.
The Marina Fire Department announced this week that its fire suppression rating from Insurance Services Office (ISO), Inc., a private company that supplies data for the insurance industry, has improved from a 5/9 to a 3/3. ISO ratings are on a scale of 1-10, with lower ratings being better.
Marina was last audited by ISO in 1996, when the city's firefighting efforts relied greatly on help from police and volunteers. The city was audited again in 2014, and their rating jumped from 52 percent to 72 percent, an improvement attributed to hard work, increased staffing and agreements made with Presidio of Monterey Fire Department and the City of Seaside Fire Department.
In a statement, Marina Fire Chief Harald Kelley writes that remaining areas of improvement are filling current vacancies in the department and staffing a second engine full-time.
The rating officially goes into effect Oct. 1, after which time homeowners and businesses may see their insurance premiums reduced.