Columbia Fire District completed its routine inspection and received a Class 6 rating, Insurance Commissioner and State Fire Marshal Wayne Goodwin announced in October.

The rating makes property owners inside the town eligible for the lowest fire insurance premiums.

The inspection, conducted by officials with the Office of State Fire Marshal, looks for proper staffing levels, sufficient and properly maintained equipment, communications capabilities and availability of a water source.

The system ranges from one (best) to 10 (not recognized as a certified fire department by the state), with most rural departments falling into the 9S category.

While a high number does not necessarily indicate poor service, a lower number does suggest that a department is overall better equipped to respond to fires in its district, Goodwin said.

Better ratings can also significantly reduce homeowners insurance rates in that fire district.

The data below compares annual insurance premiums for a new wood frame home valued at $100,000 with smoke detectors. The costs were provided by agents in Wake County. It shows the insurance rating classification with corresponding annual fire insurance premium. The lowest estimates among three agents are shown. Others were $24 and $61 higher for Class 6 and up to $115 higher for Class 10. The figures at right are the number of North Carolina fire districts in each classification:

10 — $470 — not counted

9S — $376 — 423

8 — $353 — 26

7 — $318 — 212

6 — $259 — 458

5 or below — 437

All classifications below Class 6 had the same annual fire insurance premiums, according to the Office of State Fire Marshal.

State law requires OSFM officials to inspect departments serving districts of 100,000 people or less, which makes up all but six of the state’s 1,537 fire districts.

All fire services in Columbia and rural Tyrrell County are provided by Tyrrell Volunteer Fire Department Inc., a non-profit corporation. TVFD has a central station at Columbia and substations at Alligator, Bulls Bay, Frying Pan, Gum Neck, and Kilkenny. It continues to pursue a site and substation construction on South Fork Creek Road.

Chief Johnny Spencer said TVFD was also inspected for its capabilities in rural fire protection when Columbia’s inspection was held last June.

Tyrrell County commissioners have briefly discussed creating one or more fire districts in rural areas, each with its own fire tax to pay for organized fire suppression.

Two critical factors in determining fire insurance premiums are the distance of the insured structure from a fire station and a fire hydrant.