7+ years writing insurance and personal finance content
Certified financial education instructor (CFEI)
Choncé was a licensed life insurance agent before becoming a freelance personal finance writer. She’s passionate about helping people learn to protect themselves with insurance.
3+ years experience in insurance and personal finance editing
Katie uses her knowledge and expertise as a licensed property and casualty agent in Massachusetts to help readers understand the complexities of insurance shopping.
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Insurance companies consider a variety of factors when quoting the cost of homeowners insurance, including the age and size of your home, square footage, and outdoor play equipment. But they also consider your home’s protection class, which grades your house’s proximity to fire protection services.
Finding your home’s protection class requires a little digging. Because insurance companies primarily use protection class grades, no central protection class lookup tool exists for homeowners. But you have ways to find it. Read on for a step-by-step guide to getting and understanding your home’s grade.
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What’s a home protection class?
A home protection class is a grade given to homes by the Insurance Services Office Inc. (ISO). It primarily depends on the home’s proximity to the community’s fire protection services.
Homeowners in communities with better public fire protection services tend to have a better protection class rating and pay lower insurance premiums.
A protection class code is the grade the ISO gives to a home as part of the Public Protection Classification (PPC) program. Protection classes range from 1 to 10. Class 1 indicates the best level of fire protection available, while Class 10 indicates the worst level of protection or none at all. “Fire protection class” is another name for a protection class.[1]
Good to Know
The Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS) uses points to rate the area’s fire suppression program, considering factors like the number of fire departments, access to fire hydrants, and emergency communications systems. The ISO refers to the FSRS point system to determine classes. The more points a community earns from these different evaluations, the better its protection class rating.
Why does a fire protection class matter?
The protection class code system helps communities understand and evaluate their public fire-protection services. It also helps insurers determine the risk level certain homes have when it comes to fire damage.
As a homeowner, you want the best protection class, Class 1. This protects your home against fire and can also lead to lower home insurance premiums. But having a lower protection class can increase your premiums or make it harder to get insurance altogether.
The FSRS issues a point range from 0 to 105.5, according to the features and performance of an area’s fire protection program. The FSRS uses three main areas of a community’s fire suppression system to help determine your home’s rating:
Emergency communications
Fire department
Water supply
Additionally, there’s a Community Risk Reduction section that acknowledges community efforts to prevent losses through means such as advanced fire loss protection and fire investigation.[1]
Public Protection Classification (PPC)
▲▼
Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS)
▲▼
Class 1
90.00 or more
Class 2
80.00 to 89.99
Class 3
70.00 to 79.99
Class 4
60.00 to 69.99
Class 5
50.00 to 59.99
Class 6
40.00 to 49.99
Class 7
30.00 to 39.99
Class 8
20.00 to 29.99
Class 9
10.00 to 19.99
Class 10
0.00 to 9.99
Factors that determine your PPC class
The location of your home and the community it belongs to help determine the PPC class. To assign each home’s protection class, someone from the ISO collects relevant data and calculates FSRS points according to four key factors:
Emergency communication systems
This factor considers how well the fire department receives and dispatches fire alarms. The evaluation will also consider the reporting system used and the number of telecommunicators on staff relative to the size of the community. Communities can receive a maximum of 10 points for this factor.
Fire department
The ISO examines whether the community’s fire departments check their pumps regularly and reviews the training the fire company provides to personnel. Communities can receive a maximum of 50 points based on the fire department evaluation.
Water supply
The ISO surveys all components of the water supply system to see whether the community has sufficient water to suppress fires. It also reviews fire hydrant inspections and counts the number of hydrants less than 1,000 feet from the representative locations. Communities can receive a maximum of 40 points for their water supply evaluation.
Community risk reduction
This section provides up to 5.5 extra points for communities that strive to proactively improve fire prevention, fire safety education, and fire investigation.[2]
Protection classes are for insurance industry professionals, so the ISO doesn’t make PPC information available to policyholders or the general public. But you still have ways to find your home’s protection class.
How protection class lookup works
Homeowners don’t have access to a single database for all protection class lookup information. But you can do a protection class code lookup by address online. You can search your state, town, or ZIP code and use the phrase “protection class code lookup by address” to start.
Some services do provide this information, though it’ll depend on where you live. You can sometimes find this information at one of the resources below:
Fire protection rating sites: You can search for your class code on websites like the ISO’s Public Protection Classification (PPC) database.
Local government and fire department websites: Some local government and fire departments have class code information on their websites.
Mobile applications: A few fire safety apps help users find their fire protection class code quickly.
Insurance company databases: Your insurance company may have an online database or tool that you can use to find your protection code.
State insurance department: Contact the department by phone or visit the website to find your community’s classification.
Finding home insurance for protection class 10
PPC ratings range from 1 to 10. If your home is in a Class 10 area, it means your community doesn’t meet the ISO fire suppression standards. Some insurance companies won’t allow you to purchase home insurance for Class 10 homes.
If you have a Class 10 home and need insurance, here are some steps you can take:
Shop around for insurance companies by gathering quotes online. This is the easiest way to narrow down the best coverage options for your needs since you can submit your address and find insurers that will cover a Class 10 home.
Reach out to your local fire station or community officials to encourage them to make fire suppression improvements.
Just because your home has a Class 10 code doesn’t mean it’s uninsurable. Insurance companies weigh factors differently from one another when determining policy premiums, and not all insurers use ISO. Some companies may prefer to calculate your insurance premiums based on your home’s distance from a fire station and the number of losses in your ZIP code.
How does the protection class affect home insurance premiums?
Many insurance companies use protection class information to determine the quality of community fire protection efforts, which directly affects your homeowners insurance premiums. If a community doesn’t have good fire suppression efforts, its protection class code will reflect this. This lets insurers know that the risk of loss due to fire is greater.
Insurers can then choose to increase the premium, but it all depends on that specific insurer’s underwriting guidelines and methodology used when calculating insurance costs.[3]
Insurance companies that use ISO tend to offer lower rates to homes that have a better protection class, so even if your home is Class 4 or 5, you’ll likely see a lower premium than if it were Class 8 or 9.
Challenges and limitations of protection class
Though protection classes can provide helpful insight into your community’s fire protection efforts, they can negatively affect your insurance costs if your community has a higher class rating.
You largely don’t have the power to change your protection class without moving. For example, if you live in a remote or rural area far away from a fire department, you can’t change the fact that you don’t live closer to a fire department.
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How to improve your protection class
Improving your protection class is possible, but it’s not always the simplest process since the reason for your community’s ranking is usually out of your control. But you can try a few options, such as:
Contact community leaders or attend town hall meetings to raise the topic of improving emergency communication systems, water supply systems, and more.
Contact your local fire department and ask whether it’s making efforts to increase the city’s PPC.
Ask a city official to contact ISO to request a re-evaluation if your community’s officials have taken steps to improve water supply and fire protection.[4] You can reach an ISO mitigation specialist at 1 (800) 444-4554.[5]
Protection class lookup FAQs
Many factors can affect the cost of homeowners insurance, including its protection class. Here are answers to some commonly asked questions about insurance and protection classes.
Is there a protection class lookup tool?
The Insurance Services Office (ISO) determines a protection class for a home according to its address or ZIP code to help insurance companies assess risks associated with insuring the property. Unfortunately, no official protection class lookup tool exists for homeowners since insurance companies are the primary users of the data.
What is an ISO code in the home protection class?
An ISO code is the number assigned to your home based on its fire protection assessment. The codes range from 1 to 10, with Class 1 being the best level of fire suppression protection and Class 10 being the worst.
How can you find the protection class of your property?
It’s not always easy to find the protection class code for your home, but you can try looking it up online or checking your city’s official website. If you live in a large city or town that covers multiple ZIP codes, you’ll want to focus on locating the PPC code for your specific ZIP code. You can also try contacting your realtor, insurance company, or a city or fire official in your community.
Can an insurance fire protection class change?
Yes. An insurance fire protection class can change after a re-evaluation of your community if the ISO finds that it meets more of its qualifications. This can include an improved water supply, better fire protection services, and even intentional community efforts to decrease risks.
How do insurance companies find homeowners protection classes?
The ISO provides protection class information to insurance companies. From there, insurance companies determine how to apply the information to premiums.
Choncé Maddox is a Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI) and personal finance freelance writer. She graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree in Journalism and has been covering personal finance topics surrounding saving, debt payoff, credit, and home insurance for seven years. Chonce briefly held a life insurance license in Illinois where she developed a passion for helping people learn how to protect themselves and their property through insurance coverage. Her work has been featured on LendingTree, Business Insider, RateGenius and more.
Edited byKatie PowersAuto and Life Insurance Editor
Katie PowersAuto and Life Insurance Editor
Licensed auto and home insurance agent
3+ years experience in insurance and personal finance editing
Katie uses her knowledge and expertise as a licensed property and casualty agent in Massachusetts to help readers understand the complexities of insurance shopping.
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