EGLON — Providing the best service possible to North End residents and businesses is a goal that North Kitsap Fire & Rescue works hard to achieve. It aims to improve response times and strives to work in the community to support healthy and safe activities.

However, the Washington Survey and Rating Bureau, a non-governmental agency funded by insurance companies, has knocked the rating in Eglon from a Class 5 to a 10, meaning that although the area was considered covered by the fire departments, it is now deemed unprotected. The determination stems from a distance rule that takes into account how far fire stations are from the community. The bureau considers a number of requirements, one of them — the five-mile rule — states that if fire services are within five miles of the area, it’s covered, if not, it’s unprotected.

Both of the NKF&R stations near Eglon are outside the WSRB’s five-mile marker.

“This is a technical problem with the insurance bureau,” said NKF&R Fire Chief Paul Nichol. “We need to make sure that citizens know about it.”

“This is entirely technical,” agreed NKF&R Fire Chief Dan Smith. “There are developments in the five-mile area with hard roads to negotiate. It can take us 15 minutes to go three miles.”

Despite being a “technical” issue, the change could impact Eglon residents’ fire insurance rates, as some insurance companies use the WSRB’s ratings to establish their prices. Both NKF&R and the WSRB stress that not all insurance companies use the bureau’s ratings.

“This particular rule is part of our general classification system that is filed with and approved by the Office of Insurance Commissioner,” said WSRB vice-president David Bruell in a June 14 letter to Nichol. “It is available for use by insurance companies, but they are not required to use it.”

“It’s frustrating because we can’t get definition on how many people will be affected by this change,” said NKF&R public information officer Michele Laboda.

She added that response time to Eglon is about nine minutes. In 2005, the Eglon had 18 emergency calls, less than 1 percent of the call volume NKF&R received.

Regardless, the WSRB will not bend the rules for NKF&R or the tiny community.

“It’s an industry standard,” Bruell said. “It’s something that we do support. Changing it would be difficult. In order to get back to Class 5, the only solution is a fire station within five miles.”

Nichol, Laboda and Smith are working to solve the problem so the Class 10 rating will return to a Class 5. Their first step is to inform the public of the change, and reassure residents they are and will continue to receive the same level of emergency response. A informational meeting will be held at 7 p.m. July 12 to education Eglon residents about the change and to hear suggestion from the public.

“Come to the meeting before you call your insurance company,” Laboda said, adding that the companies may not even know about the class change yet.

“With two fully-staffed stations responding to Eglon from points just beyond five miles, the standard does not accurately describe the fire protection provided to this community,” Nichol wrote in a letter to WSRB.

“It’s all about time,” Laboda said.

“The response times are not taken into consideration,” Smith said. “They don’t have a method to measure response times. This has nothing to do with operational and service level realities.”