SUGGESTIONS FOR RATING FOREST INSURANCE Y03 



or other purposes; internal exposure — fire originating from other occu- 

 pancies of the same building; external exposure — fire originating from 

 outside occupancies. The abihty to withstand fire depends upon con- 

 struction, and hazard is also modified by the quality of private protec- 

 tion within and of public protection without. 



CLASSIFICATION 



Risks are classified according to the following scheme : 



A. Occupancy. 



1. All cities and towns are graded into ten classes, according to a 

 scoring system which takes account of water supply, fire department, 

 alarm system, streets, police, building laws, explosives and inflamma- 

 bles, electricity, natural and structural conditions. 



2. Occupancies are grouped in some 430 different classes, according 

 to kind, such as manufacture of fireworks, clothing store, dwelling, 

 hotel. Each of these classes may or may not occur in all ten classes 

 of towns. 



3. Each occupancy class is divided into three sub-classes, according 

 to whether the building is of fireproof, brick, or frame construction. 



4. Each of these three sub-classes is divided into ten grades of 

 quality as to building, as to contents, and as to both combined. 



5. Each of these thirty grades of building is again subdivided into 

 ten grades according to contents, and each of the thirty grades of con- 

 tent;^ into ten grades according to grade of building in which located. 



B. Exposure. 



Classification as to exposure (internal and external separately) is 

 made in a similar way, except that instead of the 430 occupancy classes 

 there are only three groups (contents, building, building and contents), 

 each of which are subdivided into three sub-classes (fireproof, brick, 

 and frame), and that these sub-classes are graded according to ex- 

 posure instead of according to construction or condition. 



This is, of course, a very complicated classification, but once worked 

 out, it may be expected to stand for a long time. Experience will 

 probably show that many of the occupancy classes have equal hazards 

 and can be grouped so that the number of classes may be considerably 

 reduced. 



