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Good news for Broadview and Capitol Hill fire district homeowners — your insurance rates are about to go down.

Franklin County Mayor Chris Guess announced Friday that an Insurance Services Office Inc. re-inspection has highlighted improvements made in the two districts’ fire-protection ability, and the ratings that had plummeted are back to where they once were.

ISO is a statistical provider of claims information and analytics used by insurance companies to set coverage rates based on how well-prepared fire departments are in being able to protect property.

An ISO fire rating mainly focuses on the local fire departments and water supply, but other factors contribute to an area’s score.

In Broadview and Capitol Hill’s cases, the volunteer fire departments had faced issues where operational documents did not meet ISO standards, and the fire districts’ ratings, determined by ISO, plummeted to the lowest level, Guess said.

Some property owners saw their insurance rates more than double while others saw lesser, but still significant, increases in their premiums.

Guess explained the circumstances.

“We recently saw two of our fire departments — Broadview and Capitol Hill — essentially fall behind and lose ratings due to the lack of documentation,” he said. “However, services were never compromised.”

Guess said that through the ISO inspection process, deficiencies were found in documentation of fire events, documentation of training and the number of trained volunteers.

Broadview Fire Chief Steve Macon and Capitol Hill Fire Chief Michael Eddings said their departments’ ISO ratings dropped to a level 10 — the worst rating on a scale of 1 to 10.

Eddings said ISO inspections are done once every five years, and the two departments came under the office’s microscope three years ago. He added that a request to have the departments re-inspected was filed so that the ratings could be improved to reduce the higher insurance premiums.

Capitol Hill had been at a level 6 before the inspection, and that rating has been reinstated.

Likewise, Broadview had been at a level 5, and that rating has also been reinstated.

Guess said homeowners in those fire districts will appreciate the most-recent adjustment.

“Property owners in these districts felt the effects through raised insurance premiums,” he said. “Both departments have worked diligently to correct the deficiencies, even to the point of restricting an entire department.”

Guess said that, across the board, Franklin County’s 15 fire departments tend to be stable in their finances, operations and training.

“The most valuable asset to any fire department is strong community involvement and the dedicated men and women who serve their communities as fire-department members,” he said. “Unfortunately, manpower is a concern and a hurdle that every fire department is faced with.”

Guess stressed that training is extremely important, and Capitol Hill and Broadview have been plagued by a manpower shortage stemming from additional training requirements involving outside sources instead of handling those duties in-house.

“Moving from a more in-house-based training system has caused a drop in recruitment and retention of members,” he said. “Members are already asked to make sacrifices from the duties of being a firefighter.

“Asking members to take time off from their jobs and families just adds to the stress and burden placed on fire-department members.”

 County Fire Chief Chuck Stines stressed that proper training is paramount, which creates challenges with volunteer fire departments.

He explained that a decade ago, firefighters were routinely trained in-house, but changes in the field since then have resulted in training being outsourced.

Stines said the outsourced training requires a much larger time commitment which has affected volunteer-firemen numbers. He said volunteers usually have to fit training around work schedules, and that has been more difficult with outsourced services.

He paid tribute to the Broadview and Capitol Hill fire departments for making the changes to improve their ISO ratings, adding that the two departments have gone the extra distance to turn their situations around.

Stines also said that the county has excellent fire protection through its 15 departments working together and receiving additional support through mutual-aid agreements with other nearby fire departments.