O'Fallon Fire Receives Second Accreditation Award

The will be presented with their second consecutive award for being an Internationally Accredited Fire Agency on March 14.

On March 6, 2012 the O’Fallon Fire Protection District became the first fire department in the State of Missouri to achieve Internationally Accredited status for the second time.

The award was made by the Center for Public Safety Excellence’s Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) at their Spring Meeting in North Las Vegas, Nevada. 

The Fire District received the award after working more than five years towards showing how the District meets the standards that are set by the CFAI. The CFAI has approved accreditation status for only 145 fire agencies worldwide.

This in-depth process involved the District stating how they meet the standards in 10 categories including Governance; how the agency is established and operates, Assessment and Planning; which covers how the agency will work in the future, Goals and Objectives; which covers how the agency will improve in the future, Finance; Programs; which breaks down to Fire Suppression, Fire Prevention, Fire Education, Fire Investigation, Hazardous Materials, Technical Rescue, and Emergency Medical Services, Physical Resources; which include vehicles and buildings, Human Resources; covers all aspects of HR, Training and Competency, Essential Resources; which includes Water Supply, Communications, Office Systems and Computer Systems, and Mutual Aid.

These categories include over 250 performance indicators and each of them had to be addressed through a system of self-evaluation.The self evaluation included not only how the District is doing things but how well we feel we are doing them. 

The process also made it necessary to develop a plan of improvement for each of the performance indicators. By having to make these plans the District was not only addressing the major areas that are normally addressed but the sub-areas that are sometimes overlooked when planning focuses on the big issues. The citizens of the community will benefit mostly from the improvements that this process has initiated and the change in the way things are accomplished.

In January, CFAI sent a group of assessors to validate and verify that the District was meeting all the performance indicators and identify what areas needed improvement. After the site visit by the assessors it was recommended that the District receive accreditation. The District then went before the CFAI at their Spring Meeting and answered any remaining questions that the panel put forward.  Afterwards, a unanimous vote for accreditation was received.

The O’Fallon Fire Protection District is proud to be the first fire agency in the St. Louis Metro Area and the State of Missouri to receive this award twice.