ROCHELLE – The Ogle-Lee Fire Protection District which includes Creston, Steward, Hillcrest and Flagg-Center fire departments received its insurance rating for 2019 and it was a big improvement from the following rating.
The rating is determined by the Insurance Service Organization, a nationwide organization that goes out to different municipalities and rates their ability to put out fires. The rating is then used to contract with many different insurance organizations.
This rating is based off of all aspects of the fire department ranging from training, equipment, staffing, dispatch capabilities, and then 40 percent of the rating comes from the municipality’s ability to supply water.
This rating is done every five years and is graded on a scale of one through 10, with 10 meaning there is almost no fire protection down to one which means there is really good fire protection.
The Ogle-Lee Fire Protection District has gone up and down in the last decade, but the most recent rating is the biggest improvement seen to date.

“In 2009 Ogle-Lee was a five, in 2015 they went up to a six, and then in 2019 we dropped down two points to a four which is kind of a big deal,” explained Rochelle Fire Chief Dave Sawlsville. “Notoriously, you see municipalities go up or down a point, but I have never seen someone drop two before.”
Dropping two points is the largest rating improvement the chief has seen during his time at the station.
During 2014 and 2019, many new initiatives were implemented in order to achieve the better insurance rating, such as comprehensive training, comprehensive record keeping and a new web-based software of recording everything that is done.
The chief believes that the higher previous rating was received not because things weren’t getting done, but because things were not being recorded properly.
“I wasn’t chief then, but what it looked like to me was that they were doing all of the right things they just weren’t tracking them,” added Sawlsville. “The ISO has a very strict rule that if it is not written down, then it was not done.”
This ISO insurance rating is very important to not only the fire departments, but also the homeowners who are located within the jurisdiction. The rating can be used by any of the insurance companies to help them decide what to set the premium dollar amount at. So, a better rating can mean that homeowner’s premiums could go down, while a worse rating could cause the homeowner to see the opposite effect.
Chief Sawlsville gives much of the credit for receiving a better rating to the many firefighters who are doing the training and the maintenance on the equipment and keeping the records.
“The credit certainly goes back to the people who are out there working with their boots on the ground,” expressed Sawlsville.