HARMONY — Property owners living in the Harmony Fire District’s coverage area may be eligible for insurance rate reductions.

The fire district, which serves Harmony and Zelienople boroughs and Jackson and Lancaster townships, was recently informed by the Insurance Services Office of an improvement to the insurance rating for the entire district based on the proximity to a recognized municipal hydrated water supply.

“It’s big,” said Fire Chief Scott Garing. “The fire district is in the top 3 percent to 5 percent of the fire department ratings in the state. We’re also in the top 6 percent to 10 percent in the country, and that compares us to most paid fire departments.”

The ISO evaluates fire protection capabilities, water supply and emergency communications such as 911 services, to determine appropriate levels of service based on recognized national standards.

All property owners are encouraged by the fire district to contact their homeowner’s insurance carriers to determine if they are eligible for any savings on their homeowners or business insurance policies.

“It should be a significant savings or some type of savings for everyone that it’s applicable to,” Garing said.

The process took over a year to validate the fire district, a merging of the former Zelienople Fire Department and Harmony Fire Company.

“We had to wait until all of the legal paperwork was finalized by the state and Butler County to prove who we were, then we had to be fully engaged in training, emergency response and sharing apparatus under one name,” Garing said in a news release.

The fire district has made improvements to its hydrants and water system in its past year of service, with firefighters gathering geographic information and testing hydrants under the ISO’s guidance. PA American Water Company also participated in the study.

“We had a lot of help from different municipal departments,” said Deputy Chief Rob Reeb, who gathered information for the geographic portion of the study.

Reeb said the potential insurance savings for property owners could benefit business areas in the four municipalities.

“They’re the ones that are under scrutiny for everything. Here, they can say, ‘Hey, finally we got a break,’” he said. “Hopefully when a new company or business moves in, they could say, ‘Wow, we could save so much a year on our fire insurance here.’”

This was the first time in nearly 10 years that an outside agency did actual flow testing on the three water systems in the district, according to the release.

Zelienople closed its water treatment plant, and purchases water from Beaver Falls and stores it in two 1-million-gallon tanks.

Harmony has consolidated three old tanks into one new, larger elevated tank and PA American has expanded its system with additional pump stations throughout Jackson and Lancaster Townships.

“There are hydrants in places now that we never imagined before, and most of them provide great pressure,” Garing said in the release. “It all helped in our rating.”

Technological and staffing improvements to Butler County 911 also contributed to the improved rating.

Everyone in Butler County benefits from 911,” the release states.

Garing said evaluating the fire district was the final step, including providing membership documents, training and fire response as one free-standing organization.

“This included what units responded on fire calls and how many personnel responded to do the job,” Garing said. “We are on a path to further success.”

The fire district also is going by the ISO to determine its new location for headquarters, which has yet to be announced.

Fire district President Tim Sapienza previously said the ISO suggested headquarters should be between Main Street in Harmony and Main Street in Zelienople.

Garing said the new location also would help improve the rating, potentially meaning more savings for property owners.

“We worked with the ISO office to ensure the location we pick improves or maintains the ISO rating,” he said. “We picked a good spot.”