Columbus Fire and Rescue will be recommended for national accreditation, the department announced Thursday.
The Center for Public Safety Excellence Peer Assessment Team has been in town since Monday, reviewing the department and their procedures.
The official decision will be made in March 2014.
Peer Assessment Team Leader Will Gray confirmed the team’s decision Thursday afternoon.
“We were most impressed with the department’s hazardous materials team and its resources and equipment, the department’s 5-Year Strategic Plan, and its Columbus Fire and Rescue Magazine,” Gray said. “I will be recommending accreditation before the Commission in March.”
Fire Chief Ken Moore said the impending accreditation was a “comprehensive effort.”
“If it wasn’t for a lot of agencies contributing their data to what we were trying to accomplish and bought into it, we couldn’t have done it without everybody,” Moore said. “This is a community effort. We couldn’t have done it by ourselves.”
While it was a community effort, Moore said the firefighters deserve a pat on the back.
“This is a testament to the teamwork of all of the members of Columbus Fire and Rescue and to the dedication of hardwork and service they provide to the citizens of Columbus,” he said. “This is about the guys who put the boots on everyday.”
According to a release issued by the department, if Columbus Fire and Rescue receives the accreditation, it will be the first department in the state to do so and the department will be placed in the top one percent of fire departments in the United States.
There are 187 accredited fire departments in the nation, out of 38,000.
Sarah Fowler covered crime, education and community related events for The Dispatch.
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