Columbus Fire and Rescue’s national accreditation is all but official, a Center for Public Safety Excellence Peer Assessment Team announced Thursday.
After spending a week observing all department activities, including its safety procedures, equipment and documentation, the team assigned to CFR reported during its final debriefing Thursday it would recommend reaccreditation to the Commission on Fire Accreditation International at the International Association of Fire Chief’s annual conference in Atlanta.
“The accreditation process isn’t an easy one,” said CFR Chief Martin Andrews. “… I thank God for allowing us to be in this position. We need to keep pushing forward to serve our community the best way possible.”
Accreditation is a voluntary process involving a fire department working with a group of peers from other agencies to evaluate the overall effectiveness and quality of the department. CFR was first nationally accredited in 2014, becoming the only municipal department in the state to hold the distinction. Only 220 of the more than 43,000 fire departments in the country are nationally accredited.
CFR must renew its accreditation every five years and must submit an annual report to the accreditation board to maintain eligibility. Department leadership must also attend conferences and complete regular continuing education programs in order to maintain accreditation.
One of the contributing factors to a fire department’s reaccreditation is its state rating, according to the CFAI website. CFD currently holds a Class 3 rating based on response times, training, available equipment and facilities, record keeping and emergency communication, all of which are considered by peer assessors during the reaccreditation review. State fire ratings impact homeowners’ insurance rates (the better the rating, the lower the premium), and only five fire departments in Mississippi have a rating of Class 3 or better.
To maintain both its accreditation status, and a high state rating, CFR must be consistently upgrading its training, policies and equipment with the goal of decreasing emergency response times and increasing firefighter safety. For reaccreditation, there is also a special emphasis placed on community fire prevention education. In addition to holding regular events at schools and churches to talk to city residents about fire safety, CFR Public Information Officer Anthony Colom said CFR releases a quarterly magazine address issues ranging from highlighting CFR’s response to major disasters or events to encouraging people to change their smoke detector batteries.
That was something Robert Wike Graham, battalion chief with the Charlotte, North Carolina fire department and a member of the peer assessment team, mentioned during Thursday’s final debriefing. He said it was one of several aspects of CFR’s operations and training that stood out to the peer assessors.
“We saw a tremendous commitment to the accreditation process,” he said. “We were especially impressed by the fire prevention and education and the (hazardous materials) training. Those are things that we rarely see such a level of dedication and commitment to.”
Graham, on behalf of his team, recommended that CFR update procedures to account for new national and statewide policies or the number of staff members currently on-hand. He also recommended CFR install tornado shelters at each fire station for on-duty personnel and concentrate on recruiting and hiring female firefighters.
As part of maintaining the accreditation, CFR must submit an annual report detailing, among other things, how the department has addressed the peer assessors’ findings. In another five years, when CFR’s accreditation is due for renewal again, a different group of peer assessors will revisit the recommendations to see if CFR has improved.
“There is always going to be something to improve on,” said Ty Drage, a fire marshal with the Front Range, Colorado fire department. “The accreditation process and the findings process is about finding ways to improve so the quality of service can continue to grow.”
The value of accreditation is the standard it sets for fire department employees and the community they serve, Colom said.
“It holds us to a certain standard to keep people safe and our firefighters safer,” he said. “Unfortunately, there haven’t been any monetary benefits available to firefighters or fire departments. But we see the value in constantly being held to a higher standard of service and safety.”
Columbus Mayor Robert Smith praised Andrews and his staff for their work in seeking reaccreditation.
“We all see how hard (Andrews) works,” he said. “And I know it’s not just him, but the whole team behind him. They worked very hard to make this happen, and I thank them.”
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