The Atlanta Fire Rescue Department has successfully defended its recommendation for continued accredited status by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International and Center for Public Safety Excellence Inc. This places AFRD once again among an elite group—out of more than 27,000 departments across the nation, AFRD is one of 77 departments that are accredited and hold a Class 1 ISO rating, according to a press release.
“I am extremely proud of the AFRD team and appreciative of the support from Mayor Bottoms’ in making this happen,” said AFRD Chief Randall Slaughter. “Many of the larger departments like AFRD shy away from attempting to become accredited because of the rigorous process involved. As Fire Chief, our residents and visitors can rest assured that we are who we say we are and that they are being served by a world-class organization”
AFRD received Accredited Agency status with the CFAI for meeting the criteria established through their voluntary self-assessment and accreditation program. AFRD is one of 266 agencies to achieve Internationally Accredited Agency status with the CFAI and CPSE.
This marks the first time in 22 years that AFRD was recommended for accreditation without an initial recommendation for deferral. Agencies become accredited after a peer review of their accreditation documents, completion of an onsite assessment, and participation in a public hearing before the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. The accreditation is valid for five years.
CFAI is dedicated to assisting the fire and emergency service agencies throughout the world in achieving excellence through self-assessment and peer evaluation in order to provide continuous quality improvement and the enhancement of service delivery to their communities. The CFAI process is voluntary and provides an agency with an improvement model to assess their service delivery and performance internally and then works with a team of peers from other agencies to evaluate their completed self-assessment.
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