Rural Maple Ridge, B.C. homeowners may qualify for lower fire insurance rates

The City of Maple Ridge, British Columbia has said that some homeowners in rural areas may be eligible for a discount on their fire insurance premiums.

Maple Ridge Fire Chief Dane Spence said in a press release on Friday that the local fire department has earned the ‘Superior Tanker Shuttle Service’ (STSS) designation, which will allow some rural homeowners to receive a discount on their fire insurance premiums, although the discount amount was not disclosed.

Homeowners in the area that is covered under the STSS designation will be getting a notification in the mail with confirmation of this designation and a map showing the specific area. Information from the city showed that there was 1,203 “owner records” for the area with an “improvement threshold” of $10,000.

The announcement follows the organization and execution of a special exercise, monitored by the Fire Underwriters Survey, by Maple Ridge Deputy Fire Chief Howard Exner last year to demonstrate the capacity to get water to rural areas of the community that are not serviced by fire hydrants, the release said. During the timed exercise, water quantities were measured and certified formally.

“Maple Ridge has a large rural community that is on the forest interface and the ability for us to transport water to a fire scene so that we can seamlessly extinguish a large blaze is an important part of our evolution as a department,” Spence said in the release.

According to the Fire Underwriters Survey, accredited STSS is a “recognized equivalency to hydrant protection.” To be accredited, the fire department must be able to show through testing and documentation that it can “continuously provide water supplies in excess of the minimum required for hydranted municipal-type water supplies.”

Among other requirements, the fire department must also be able to “deliver a flow rate of not less than 950 litres per minute (LPM) (2000 imperial gallons per minute (IGPM) within 5 minutes of arriving at the test site with the first major piece of apparatus (wheel stop)” and a flow rate of not less than 1900 LPM (400 IGPM) within five minutes of arriving at the test site with the first major piece of apparatus (wheel stop) for commercial lines insurance.