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Homeowners in the Bayou Cane borough of Terrebonne Parish may see their property insurance rates lowered next year.
The Terrebonne Parish Council voted unanimously to approve an ordinance that officially declared the Bayou Cane Fire Department as a Certified Fire Prevention Bureau after changes to the language and terms the council requested were made.
The Bayou Cane Fire Prevention Bureau is an administrative extension of the fire department, which performs yearly inspections of commercial buildings for fire code compliance.
The National Fire Protection Association, which publishes the national fire codes, requires fire protection agencies to inspect buildings once a year.
The Property Insurance Association of Louisiana, or PIAL, is the organization that issues fire ratings to individual fire departments that describe the level of fire protection those departments offer their communities.
Fire districts can receive a rating from 1 to 10. A rating of 10 represents no fire protection while a rating of 1 represents the best protection available. They are used by insurance companies to determine homeowner’s insurance premiums.
The Bayou Cane Fire Department is currently rated a Class 2 fire department, said Bayou Cane Fire Chief Ken Himel. He said a department’s rating is determined by how they score on a 110-point scorecard grading water supply, equipment, manpower, training and community education. He said if the Fire Prevention Bureau were not made official, the department would have lost 10 points toward its rating.
The bureau has actually been inspecting buildings for more than 15 years. The council had approved a resolution establishing the BCFPB in 1999, but state law governing fire prevention bureaus, which has amended heavily over the years, requires a special ordinance be passed by municipalities during their creation.
Without this ordinance, the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal couldn’t grant the BCFPB the authority to write citations to commercial property owners for fire code violations.
Councilwoman Beryl Amedee, District 4, had reservations about a provision in the Louisiana law on the matter.
Louisiana Revised Statute 40:1563 reads, “The local governing authority shall, by specific resolution accompanying the ordinance creating the fire protection bureau, assume the responsibility for and release the fire marshal and any other state entity from responsibility or liability for those inspections performed by the fire prevention bureau, or the consequences thereof, within the jurisdiction of the governing authority.”
Terrebonne Parish Attorney Courtney Alcock said the parish signed an indemnity agreement with the Bayou Cane Fire Protection District releasing them from any liability should the BCFPD get sued. She added that she’d received a certificate of insurance naming the parish as additionally insured in the BCFPB’s insurance policy.
Chief Himel explained that extreme conditions would have to be met for the department to be held liable for a fire. Using Southland Mall as an example, “we would have to negligently let the mall burn down for us to be held liable.”
Other changes to the ordinance were to a penalty provision that spelled out consequences for non-compliance. The other was also a paragraph that stated that a fire code inspector or his “designee” may perform inspections and issue citations “in accordance with state law.”
The ordinance was up for vote in December of last year, but was never voted on because the language of the ordinance did not satisfy all council members then, either, said Councilmember John Navy.
