By Allen Powell II
Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
Copyright 2007 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company
WESTWEGO, La. — With a decrease in the city’s fire protection rating looming, the Westwego City Council last week approved widespread improvements to fire hydrants in the city in an effort to prevent possible increases in residents’ homeowners insurance premiums.
The council authorized Mayor Robert Billiot to pay an outside contractor up to $100,000 to repair any damaged fire hydrant in the city. The council also asked that a regular maintenance program be established, with money allocated for it under the annual budget.
The council’s decision came after a recent inspection by the Property Insurance Association of Louisiana determined that Westwego’s public protection classification should go from a Class 2 to a Class 3. The association rates cities and parishes on a 100-point scale and issues classifications ranging from 1 to 10, with a 1 being the best score. The change is slated to take effect in six months unless the city can show improvements to its fire protection.
Fire protection ratings often can have a small effect on insurance premiums for homeowners. Depending on their coverage, homeowners could see the premiums on a home valued at $80,000 increase by about $60 annually with a decrease in rating, while business owners would see an even larger change, according to information from the Louisiana Insurance Commissioner’s Office.
Westwego Fire Chief Keith Bouvier told the council that the rating is changing mainly because of problems with the fire department’s ability to access water and problems with its training methods. Some of the problems were due to ongoing issues at the city’s drinking water plant, which has problems providing adequate water pressure to parts of the city. City officials are already planning improvements to the water plant to address some of those pressure issues.
The most egregious problems were with the city’s fire hydrants, which are in need of a major overhaul. Bouvier said that when the association’s inspector randomly tested 20 of Westwego’s 334 fire hydrants he found that only six of them were working properly. In addition, many of those same hydrants did not work properly when they were tested during the city’s last inspection five years ago.
Bouvier said the problems range from broken repair valves and seals to completely inoperable hydrants. In total, Bouvier estimated that about 10 percent of the city’s fire hydrants are in need of repairs. Councilman John Shaddinger asked how the problem became so pronounced, and Bouvier noted that the fire department has always passed along a list of the damaged hydrants to the city, but was typically told that the maintenance could not proceed because of money problems.
In addition to the hydrant problems, the city also had some issues with the training of its firefighters. Although there are more than 80 active volunteer firefighters in the city, only about 12 to 15 of them attend regular weekly training, Bouvier said. He said many of the active members are older firefighters who do not deem it necessary to attend regular training because they rarely actively fight fires when they respond to calls. Bouvier said he would rather have those firefighter on the department’s rolls in case of emergency, than cull them to improve the fire protection score.
“They may not be able to go in houses but they can carry hoses,” the fire chief said.