Monroe Fire Department Obtains International Accreditation ...

Photo of team receiving certification award:. Pictured from left to right?Engineer Joe Rampey, Interim City Manager Greg Demko, Chief Ron Fowler, CFAI Vice-Chairman Steven Westermann, Division Chief and Accreditation Manager Andrew Ansley, Engineer Kevin Philemon and Peer Team Leader Assistant Chief Bill Stark.

MONROE ? The Monroe Fire Department has been awarded Accredited Agency status by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) for meeting the criteria established through the CFAI?s accreditation program.

?This is a major achievement not only for the department but for our residents, business owners, and visitors to Monroe,? said Chief Ron Fowler. ?I commend the members of our department for all their efforts and the hard work involved in obtaining accredited status. I also sincerely appreciate the departmental support shown by our community, city administration and council members.?

CFAI is dedicated to assisting fire and emergency services agencies throughout the world in achieving excellence through self-assessment and accreditation in order to provide continuous quality improvement and enhancement of service delivery to their communities.

?Our commitment to excellence and to the accreditation process is on-going and that commitment will continue to improve the quality of our services to the residents of Monroe,? Fowler added.

Of more than 30,000 rated fire departments in the United States, there are just over 150 who have earned internationally accredited status with the CFAI and the Center for Public Safety Excellence, Inc.

?I am very proud of what our fire department has accomplished and I want the public to understand that this is something they should be proud of as well,? said Monroe Mayor Bobby Kilgore. ?We now have respective accredited fire and police departments and there are not many communities that are able to say that.?

The CFAI program is a comprehensive self-assessment and evaluation model that enables fire and emergency service organizations to examine past, current, and future service levels and performance and compare them to industry best practices. Monroe satisfied the more than 250 individual CFAI performance indicators in the following categories; administration and governance, planning, goal setting and achievement, financial management and administration, direct program delivery, physical resources, human resources, training and competency, essential resources, and external systems relationships.

In addition, as part of the accreditation process, the department utilized citizen input and created a community driven strategic plan which will lead, guide, and direct the vision of the department into the future. The department also created a Standard of Response Coverage document, which is based on a comprehensive risk assessment of the community and a basis for how the fire department responds to the community?s needs. A peer assessment team conducted an assessment of the department in February to verify the department?s performance and recommended that the department be accredited.

Members of the fire department along with Interim City Manager Greg Demko appeared before the Commission on Fire Accreditation International in Denver, Colorado on Aug. 2, at which time the Commission conferred accredited agency status on the department.

?This process embodies a pursuit of excellence within the fire industry; it measures each and every aspect of your organization and benchmarks your findings towards continuous quality improvement. We are seeing more and more organizations who meet these industry challenges and institutionalize the core values of accreditation into how their agencies are managed, and for that the Commission remains proud to refer to them as internationally accredited fire departments.? said Chief Allan Cain (Cary NC), CFAI Chairman.

Of the more than 1,200 fire departments in North Carolina, Monroe is the 14th North Carolina department to be accredited, joining Asheville, Cary, Charlotte, Durham, Fayetteville, Gastonia, Greensboro, Jacksonville, Morrisville, Rocky Mount, Stoney Point and Wilson Fire Departments, and Camp Lejeune Fire and Emergency Services.

PRIMARY AGENCY: Monroe Fire Department

Submitted by: Fire Chief Ronald D. Fowler, CFO

Source: http://www.firenews.net/6667/monroe-fire-department-obtains-international-accreditation/

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