On Friday, August 25th, city officials gathered at the Central Fire Station to celebrate the Bristol, Tennessee Fire Department’s recent designation as an internationally accredited agency. The Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) designated the department with Agency Accreditation on Friday, July 28th in Charlotte, NC. CFAI is an arm of the Center for Public Safety Excellence and provides the only accreditation program for fire service organizations in the world. This internationally recognized program promotes a comprehensive self-assessment and quality improvement model that enables organizations to examine past, current, and future service levels and measure internal performance through comparisons to current research and industry best practices.
CFAI awards accreditation to fire and emergency services organizations that have met or exceeded all performance indicators from the program model. Less than 1% of fire departments in the United States have achieved CFAI accreditation, and Bristol becomes only the fifth career fire department in Tennessee to do so as they join Alcoa, Brentwood, Kingsport, and Maryville.
Fire Chief Bob Barnes, Captain David McGlamery (Accreditation Manager) and Battalion Chief Alan Howard (Assistant Accreditation Manager) appeared before the CFAI Board of Commissioners and responded to inquiries stemming from an on-site peer review assessment and provided details relative to continuous improvement plans. Vice-Mayor Margaret Feierabend and City Manager Bill Sorah also attended and voiced the city’s continued support for the Fire Department and the CFAI model.
Accreditation is valid for five years, at which time the department will resubmit updated assessment documents for agency review and recommendation to the commission for reaccreditation.
For more information, please contact Fire Chief Bob Barnes at 423-989-5701 or email [email protected]
