Insurance rates are rising for homeowners in the upper valley, the result of a diminished rating of the Klehini Valley Fire Department by the Insurance Services Office (ISO).
The ISO about two years ago downgraded the department’s rating from “8” to “10,” the lowest score possible. Ratings are based on factors like number of personnel, amount of training, access to water and amount and quality of equipment.
Mardell Gunn and Mark Kistler, who have lived at 38.5 Mile Haines Highway for 15 years, saw their home insurance payments double, Gunn said last week. When Gunn received her bill, she called her insurance company, which informed her of the downgrade.
“It appears that the problems are numerous and complicated,” Gunn wrote in a letter to the Haines Borough’s Public Safety Commission.
“From what I can determine, there are few volunteers and they are doing what they can with the level of training they have; training is sporadic or nonexistent so qualified firefighters are not supported and new volunteers do not become qualified; equipment and water resources are problematic. Small-town personalities and politics play a part,” Gunn wrote.
KVFD Chief Robert Clay did not respond to calls for comment to this story. Assistant fire chief Sage Thomas referred questions to Clay.
Gunn’s neighbors Rich and Judy Tolles, who live about a mile up the highway from Gunn, also wrote to the commission expressing their concerns about staffing and training at the department.
“We feel this situation needs to be seriously addressed by your commission and the Haines Borough Assembly,” they wrote.
A shortage of trained volunteers, older equipment and lack of adequate water sources have likely contributed to the downgrade, said Chuck Mitman, a former KVFD fire chief and volunteer.
Mitman, who lives at 32.5 Mile but now volunteers for the Haines Fire Department, said his insurance payment jumped by $1,000.
Mitman, who volunteered and served as chief at the department between 2000 and 2009, said volunteers are hard to come by up the highway. Right now, there aren’t any volunteers at the station with Firefighter I training, he said.
Personal politics and in-fighting also affect the department, causing volunteers to quit, he said.
If it wants to increase its rating, the department has to maintain a water source during the winter, Mitman said. During his tenure, the department kept the small pond across the Porcupine Bridge easily accessible by having the area plowed and the ice broken up. That no longer happens, he said.
In a response to the letters, Haines Borough Manager David Sosa wrote that residents living in remote areas like up the highway have the ability to tax themselves through the creation of service areas.
For example, Fire District #3, which the Klehini department serves, currently pays .9 mils, or $90 on every $100,000 of assessed property value, for fire protection and prevention. This year, that translates to about $32,000 for fire protection for the entire area.
The assembly did approve $45,800 this year to go toward a new tanker and replacement of breathing apparatuses, Sosa pointed out.
“This is a departure from the past when these funds were provided by the borough in the form of a loan that the service area needed to repay,” Sosa said. “These contributions will continue in out years until sufficient money is available to purchase the desired equipment.”
Highway resident Gunn said she understands she will never get the kind of fire service town residents get. “I’m very aware that our choice to live out the road means that we are not going to be as protected as someone in town. I’m not pretending that we ever will be. But I want to have some assurance that the money we are paying for fire service is being utilized,” Gunn said.
ISO ratings are used by insurance companies to determine coverage costs. They range from “1” to “10,” with 1 being the top score. The rating inside the Haines townsite is “5,” and areas more than five miles from a fire station without traditional hydrants can score no better than an “8,” former Haines Borough firefighter Al Badgley said this week.