Fire Underwriters Survey ( FUS )
Fire Underwriters Survey is a national organization administered by CGI Insurance Business Services (formerly the IAO). Subscribers of Fire Underwriters Survey municipal grading data represent approximately 85 percent of the private sector property and casualty insurers in Canada.
Fire Underwriters Survey is a national organization administered by CGI Insurance Business Services. Utilizing our technical staff, the Survey provides data on public fire protection for fire insurance statistical work and underwriting by most of the member companies of the Insurance Bureau of Canada. It also advises municipalities on deficiencies in their fire defences and recommends improvements to enable them to better deal with fire protection problems.
Qualified surveyors conduct full field surveys of the fire defences maintained in municipalities across Canada and the results of these surveys are used to establish the Public Fire Protection Classification (PFPC) of a community. While the Survey is not involved in rate making matters, the information is one of several factors used in the development of some property insurance rates, particularly those applying to commercial, industrial and institutional occupancies.
The PFPC is also used by underwriters to determine the amount of risk they are willing to assume in a given community or section of a community.
The Fire Underwriters Survey also uses PFPC information to develop the IBC Dwelling Protection Grade (DPG), which applies to single-family residences.
The overall intent of the grading systems is to provide a measure of the ability of the protective facilities of a community to prevent and control the major fires that may be expected to occur by evaluating in detail the adequacy, reliability, strength and efficiency of these protective facilities. The schedule used does not consider past fire loss records but, rather, fire potential based on the physical structure and makeup of the community.
In the application of the schedule, the fire defence conditions in a municipality are measured against a recognized standard of fire protection. The essential features of a community's fire defences are assessed, including water supply, the fire department, fire prevention, emergency communications, building construction controls and hazards.
