The Columbus Division of Fire was granted international accreditation by the Committee on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) on February 7, 2007.  Achieving accreditation was a significant milestone in the Division’s history.  At that time, the Division of Fire became the second largest fire department in the United States to achieve accreditation.

What is accreditation?

Accreditation is a comprehensive self-assessment and evaluation model that enables organizations to examine past, current, and future service levels and internal performance and compare them to industry best practices. This process leads to improved service delivery.

Fire and emergency service agencies compare their performance to industry best practices in order to:

• Determine community risk and safety needs and develop community-specific Standards of Cover.
• Evaluate the performance of the department.
• Establish a method for achieving continuous organizational improvement.

Local government executives face increasing pressure to "do more with less" and justify their expenditures by demonstrating a direct link to improved or expanded services. Particularly for emergency services, local officials need criteria to assess professional performance and efficiency.

The CFAI accreditation process provides a well-defined, internationally-recognized benchmark system to measure the quality of fire and emergency services.

Why is accreditation important to you?

The process of achieving and continuing to maintain international accreditation has benefits

• Assure colleagues and the public that they have definite missions and objectives that are appropriate for the jurisdictions they serve 
• Provide a detailed evaluation of the services they provide to the community 
• Identify areas of strength and weakness within the department  
• Create methods or systems for addressing deficiencies while building organizational success 
• Encourage professional growth for both the department and its personnel 
• Provide a forum for the communication of organizational priorities 
• Foster national recognition by colleagues and the public 
• Create a mechanism for developing strategic and program action plans

Achieving Accredited Agency status takes work, but it is well worth the effort.

There is a substantial commitment of time and resources to maintain accreditation, however, departments nationwide have realized the value of the self-assessment process and accreditation model because it forces them to document not only what they are doing but why they are doing it.

The accreditation process results in the development of planning documents, including short-term action and long-term strategic plans, which are important tools in the budgeting process and a basis for justifying departmental programs and services. Accreditation has the potential to dramatically improve a department, its services, and its vision for the future.