PROGRESO – A Rio Grande Valley woman is in search of a new insurance provider.

Progreso resident Melissa Robledo said her insurance company, Cypress Property and Casualty, dropped her unexpectedly after an inspection.

Cypress told Robledo the reason for non-renewal is because the Progreso Volunteer Fire Department is not recognized by the Insurance Services Office, also known as ISO.

ISO is a statistical company that surveys properties that is going to be rated by an insurance company.

"If something hits, I'm going to be in trouble," said Robledo.

The insurance company was unable to give us information relating to Robledo's case citing privacy concerns.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS dug deeper into recognitions by the Insurance Services Office.

Aziz Showery, president of Aziz Showery Insurance Agency Inc., said ISO plays a big role in how much you pay for home insurance and whether you will be insured or not.

"If you are in a neighborhood or a location in a community where the fire department is within five miles, the fire hydrants are within a thousand feet, then it will get a low PPC rating," she explained.

Showery said Public Protection Classification ratings are calculated off the distance between a home and fire department. The fire department is also looked at for its response time and how equipped firefighters are.

"And that rating then is turned in to the ISO and its disseminated or passed to the insurance companies,” she said. “And then they determine what the rates are going to be based on that PPC code.”

Public Protection Classification ratings are based on a one to 10 scale. One being the best.

Showery said insurance companies are known to drop their clients for poor ratings.

"Insurance companies have the option to either renew or drop you based on the risk that's involved, because insurance companies are then going to pay out a claim," she said.

Showery said for some insurance companies the risk is too big. But Robledo said it's an eye-opener.

"When I called them I told them, ‘I mean how many more people are you doing this to?’" Robledo said.

Showery said PPC ratings vary from insurance company to insurance company. CHANNEL 5 NEWS did reach out to Progreso Fire for a response, but did not hear back as of news time.

If you would like to know more about your fire department's rating, call the Texas Department of Insurance at 1-800-444-4554, menu option 2.

We reached out to the McAllen Fire Department to learn more about how a fire department gets its PPC rating.

James Schultz, assistant chief with the department, said 50 percent of a department’s rating is based on the fire department itself. He said 10 percent is based on its emergency communication system and 40 percent on its water protection system.

Schultz said training for firefighters is also considered.

“There’s all sorts of sub categories in there and each one are graded. For example, for training our firefighters, every firefighter that’s responsible for responding to structure fires must have at least 20 hours of structure fire training per month to have the maximum number of points for the subcategory,” he said. “So, we make sure all of our firefighters have at least that much training every five months in order to get the maximum credit.”

The McAllen Fire Department was last rated a year and a half ago. Their rating sits at a 2 PPC.