Emergency Services earns accreditation from global program

  • Published
  • By Jasmine Porterfield
  • Team Eglin Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Eglin Fire Emergency Services recently received "Accredited Agency" status with the Commission on Fire Accreditation International for meeting the criteria established through the organization's voluntary self-assessment and accreditation program.

"Achieving CFAI Accredited Agency Status is a lengthy process that takes countless hours of work, but it was worth it," said Christopher Young, assistant fire chief for the 96th Civil Engineer Squadron's Eglin Fire Emergency Services branch. 

This accreditation process is voluntary and provides an agency with an improvement model to assess its services, delivery and performance. Once a self-assessment is established, the agency then works with peers from other agencies to evaluate the completed self-assessment.

"The process resulted in the development of planning documents, including short and long term strategic planning, an improved budgeting process for justifying programs and vast improvements of services delivered to the community, such as reduced response times," said Young.

Reducing response time is crucial for any emergency response service and is especially true for EFES personnel, as their response area spans the size of Rhode Island, not including the support they provide community fire agencies.

EFES is staffed with 179 firefighters operating at nine fire stations, with 55 vehicles, strategically located across Eglin, covering 724 square miles, protecting a population of more than 35,000. Additionally, EFES has 17 mutual aid agreements with local fire departments, according to Young.

EFES provides a wide range of support, including services for structural, aircraft, emergency medical, hazardous materials and technical rescue incidents. In 2014, the organization responded to 822 emergencies and 151 mutual aid calls, performed 108 high-hazard standbys, and 234 non-emergency service calls.

With an extensive emergency response record, the CFAI accreditation serves as a validation of the quality of support EFES provides to its communities. Achieving accreditation is no easy task, as the average time to complete the process ranges from three to five years.

"We have more than 200 agencies currently in the pipeline with only 20-30 achieving accredited status each year," said Karl Ristow, CFAI program director. "There are 207 accredited agencies worldwide, of which 47 are DoD."

Fire and emergency service programs throughout DoD already perform mandatory self-assessment functions to improve operations and support. Regulations recommend CFAI accreditation, but is not required. EFAS is one of 20 within the Air Force to achieve accreditation status.

"DoD installations always stand strong, because they have some of the best prevention programs in the world, and their outcomes are indisputable," said Ristow. "In fact, most of the DoD agencies meet or exceed their benchmark performance levels before they ever get in front of the commission."

The commission decides who does or doesn't make the cut. In fact, the accreditation process runs on a five-year cycle, meaning, EFES will have another site visit in 2020 and will have to show the commission it's continuously seeking improvements through an annual compliance report.

Until then, EFES's accreditation serves as a proactive tool to plan for the future and continuously improve on services provided.

"[Achieving accredited agency status] demonstrates the commitment of the agency to provide the highest quality of service to our community," said Young.